HRW report: Paramilitaries’ Heirs The New Face of Violence in Colombia

[Judi Lynn]

~snip~
IV. The Successor Groups’ Human Rights and Humanitarian Impact
The successor groups are committing widespread and serious abuses, including massacres,
killings, forced disappearances, rape, forced displacement, threats, extortion, kidnappings,
and recruitment of children as combatants.

The most common abuses are killings of and threats against civilians, including trade
unionists, journalists, human rights defenders, and victims of the AUC seeking restitution of
land and justice as part of the Justice and Peace Process. They are one of the main actors
responsible for the forced displacement of over a quarter of a million Colombians every year.
The MAPP has noted that in several regions people “do not perceive an improvement in their
security conditions” as a result of the paramilitary demobilization.103 Colombians in many
different regions told Human Rights Watch that the climate of fear in which they lived had
not meaningfully changed as a result of the demobilizations.

The government has occasionally acknowledged this fact, in an indirect manner. For
example, in its 2007 report on human rights in Colombia, the Human Rights Observatory of
the Vice-President’s Office stated that “historically the self-defense forces were the
principal group responsible for massacres in the country, but with their disappearance...
there is an increase in the percentage of cases with no known author... Several of these
cases ... are linked to the appearance of new criminal gangs linked to drug trafficking.”104
In fact, between 2007 and 2008 the number of yearly massacres in Colombia jumped by 42
percent, to 37 cases (involving 169 victims) from 26 cases (involving 128 victims). According
to the Human Rights Observatory, the successor groups were using the massacres “as a
means of revenge, to take control of territory, show power, and conduct ‘purges’ within their
organizations, all of this directed towards controlling the drug business.”105
103
Violence and Threats against Vulnerable Groups
In every region Human Rights Watch visited, it received numerous reports of threats and
killings by the successor groups. Often their targets are human rights defenders, trade
unionists, journalists, and victims of the AUC who seek to claim their rights. Such threats
often have a chilling effect on, or otherwise impair, the legitimate work of their targets.
For example, on November 4, 2007, Yolanda Becerra, president of the Popular Women’s
Organization (Organización Femenina Popular or OFP) in Barrancabermeja, Santander
department, reported being assaulted, beaten, and injured by armed men who broke into
her home and told her that she had 48 hours to leave town or they would “finish off her
family.” She had previously reported receiving a written death threat from “Black Eagles”
and had been labeled an “enemy of the peace process” by a former paramilitary commander.
As a result of the threats and attack Yolanda had to move from Barrancabermeja to
Bucaramanga, where she continues leading the OFP, but has to take significant security
precautions.106

A woman who coordinates a group on disappearances said “I live in a high-risk community
where we coexist with the paramilitaries. This year people arrived at my house and said that
I had to defend ... a demobilized paramilitary who was in jail. They threatened me.”107
In the first half of 2008 there was a wave of threats against human rights groups, trade
unionists, and others, usually signed by Black Eagles or other successor groups. Several of
the threats targeted people associated with a massive march against paramilitary violence
and state crimes on March 6, 2008. For example, on March 11, 2008, the “Bogotá Block” of
the “Black Eagles” sent one threat in three parts to various organizations and people
involved in the march, calling for “death to the leaders of the march, guerrillas, and
collaborators,” and declaring various organizations and individuals to be “military
objectives.”108 Another written threat circulated the following day to Semana magazine, the
CUT trade union confederation, Peace Brigades International, indigenous groups, and
human rights organizations. Signed by the head of the “Central Command of the Rearming
Black Eagles,” this threat announced a “total rearming of paramilitary forces” and declared
various groups to be military targets.109 In the week following the march, four trade unionists
were killed—some of them were reported to have been organizers of the march in their
region.110 The organization Nuevo Arco Iris, which has been deeply involved in monitoring
paramilitary infiltration of the political system, reported a break-in by armed men who stole
computer files. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights also reported that on February
28, 2008, there was a shooting against the house of Luz Adriana González, a member of the
Permanent Committee for the Defense of Human Rights and a promoter of the March 6 event
in the department of Pereira.111

The threats have included international observers and foreign embassies. In March 2008,
eight foreign embassies in Bogotá were reported to have received threats signed by the
“Black Eagles.”112 Similarly, in November 2007, a representative of the MAPP was threatened
by successor groups operating in Medellín.113

In the southern part of Bolivar department, the Peace and Development Program of the
Magdalena Medio, as well as various priests and non-governmental organizations and the
trade union Fedeagromisbol, reported receiving threats in the first half of 2008 from
“members of paramilitary structures that operate freely, publicly, and openly in the South of
Bolivar.” Specifically, they had received e-mail threats signed by “Black Eagles, Northern
Block of Colombia,” indicating that they were being followed and that the “annihilation plan
against (them) could start at any moment.”114

Diro César González Tejada, a journalist in Barrancabermeja, Santander, who self-publishes
a small local newspaper that reports on violence and human rights abuses in the city,
described being displaced for a year after two armed men went looking for him at his house.
After returning to Barrancabermeja, he said, “we have been permanently followed by armed
men who are recognized paramilitaries.” Diro said that he receives threats at his office and
that the successor groups “constantly call my wife, recounting to her where she has traveled
and saying ‘we’re going to kill you’... Except for going to the office, I don’t leave my house. I
don’t have a social life, I can’t go anywhere without my guards.” Diro said he had been able
to protect himself through the support of non-governmental organizations and due to
international attention to his case, but state authorities had regularly denied that anything
was happening in Barrancabermeja. “If this is my case as a journalist, what can you expect
when a peasant makes a complaint?” he said.115

In November 2009, several human rights and indigenous groups in Nariño received a written
threat signed by the Rastrojos’ “Urban Commandos,” which associated the organizations
with left-wing guerrillas and warned their members might be killed.116

More:
http://www.hrw.org/en/node/88058/section/8

[naaman fletcher]

1. Question: Do you consider HRW a credible source on Human Rights issues? nt.

[Judi Lynn]

2. COLOMBIA AND MILITARY-PARAMILITARY LINKS

COLOMBIA AND MILITARY-PARAMILITARY LINKS
Half of Colombia's eighteen brigade-level army units (excluding military schools) have documented links to paramilitary activity

THIRD BRIGADE (headquarters in Cali, Valle);

"The Calima Front and the Third Brigade are the same thing."

Colombian government investigator

Colombian government investigators and Human Rights Watch interviews include compelling, detailed information that in 1999, the Colombian Army's Third Brigade set up a "paramilitary" group in the department of Valle del Cauca, in southern Colombia. The investigators identify this group by its self-imposed name, the Calima Front (Frente Calima), and told Human Rights Watch that they were able to link the group to active duty, retired, and reserve military officers attached to the Third Brigade along with hired paramilitaries taken from the ranks of the Peasant Self-Defense Group of Córdoba and Urabá (Autodefensas Campesinas de Córdoba y Urabá, ACCU), commanded by Carlos Castaño. According to these government investigators as well as eyewitness testimony obtained by Human Rights Watch, the Third Brigade provided the Calima Front with weapons and intelligence.

At the time these events took place, the Third Brigade was under the command of Brig. Gen. Jaime Ernesto Canal Albán, where he remains to this day.(1)

Our information is based on interviews with Attorney General investigators who prepared documents for an on-going government investigation that is currently under seal (bajo reserva); an investigator from an independent organization; other investigators; and "Elias," a former Army intelligence agent who also served as a cartel gunman. "Elias" also testified under oath to Attorney General investigators. "Elias" told Human Rights Watch and government investigators that he worked for the army's "Coronel Agustín Codazzi" Battalion in Palmira, part of the Third Brigade.(2)

The Third Brigade is part of the Colombian Army's Third Division, which includes a region where military units receiving a large amount of U.S. security assistance are concentrated.(3)

According to the government investigator Human Rights Watch interviewed who helped prepare the official investigation, the Calima Front was formed in response to a mass kidnaping carried out by guerrillas belonging to the José María Becerra Front of the National Liberation Army (Ejército de Liberación Nacional, ELN). On May 30, 1999, guerrillas seized about 140 worshipers from Cali's La María Church. Among those taken were suspected drug traffickers believed to run part of the business established by the jailed Cali Cartel leaders.(4) Guerrillas demanded ransoms for some of the hostages, a serious violation of the laws of war.(5)

In response, "Elias" told Human Rights Watch, Third Brigade active duty and reserve officers formed the Calima Front, with the assistance of Carlos Castaño. Active duty officers provided intelligence and logistical support. Former military officers were among those called in to assume positions of command. The troops were made up primarily of paramilitaries brought in from Colombia's north. The men were initially lodged on ranches belonging to suspected drug traffickers, who also contributed resources to equip and feed the men.(6)

The connection between drug traffickers and paramilitary groups is not new and has been well documented in reporting by the U.S. Embassy in Bogotáá since at least 1990.(7)

"Elias" told Human Rights Watch that during his employment as an intelligence agent, he witnessed close links between drug traffickers, paramilitaries, and the Army. Among other illegal practices, "Elias" said that Codazzi Battalion soldiers routinely sold weapons and munitions captured from guerrillas on the black market. The money raised, he said, went to soldiers and to fund illegal activities. "Elias" said that he was paid according to operations generated by his information, in part supplemented by the battalion's illegal weapons sales.(8)

"Elias" said he also worked for local drug traffickers, and served as a body guard on the ranch of one drug trafficker who frequently hosted Third Brigade troops and paramilitaries. In his interview, he described the distinction between drug traffickers, paramilitaries, and the Colombian Army as virtually non-existent. His services were valuable, he told Human Rights Watch, since he maintained close ties to the Army and could serve as a shared intelligence agent for all three groups. "The salary was $800 a month if I worked with without going on maneuvers and $1,300 if I went into the field," "Elias" told Human Rights Watch.(9)

More:
http://www.ratical.com/ratville/Columbia/TiesThatBind.html#COLOMBIA AND MILITARY-PARAMILITARY

[Judi Lynn]

3. Paramilitaries re-emerge in pockets of Colombia

Paramilitaries re-emerge in pockets of Colombia
Posted 3/12/2007 11:38

By Caleb Harris, The Christian Science Monitor
BARRANCABERMEJA, Colombia — Sandra Gutierrez Torres has a dangerous job. She helps run a grass-roots human rights organization in Colombia's oil capital, Barrancabermeja, and last month her work may have cost the life of her sister.
Katherine Gonzalez Torres disappeared days after a new right-wing paramilitary group calling itself the "Black Eagles" e-mailed a death threat to more than 70 rights groups nationwide: "We will finish with you by means of your families ... your families will pay dearly."

Nothing has been seen or heard of Katherine since. Her family thinks that she's become a victim of a rising tide of organized violence in pockets of the country. The spike in attacks attributed to supposedly demobilized paramilitaries coincides with a growing scandal linking them to some of Colombia's top politicians.

It's unfortunate timing for conservative president Alvaro Uribe, who hosted President Bush Sunday and is hoping a Democrat-controlled Congress will approve the Bush administration's request for $3.9 billion in new aid, mostly to help Colombia fight the drug trade over the next seven years.

The "para-politics" scandal has seen eight pro-Uribe senators jailed for links with paramilitaries. In late February, Foreign Secretary Marma Consuelo Arazjo resigned after her brother, a senator, was jailed for paramilitary involvement, and her father and cousin, also pro-Uribe politicians, were similarly accused.

The same week, Uribe's former intelligence chief Jorge Noguera was arrested for allegedly supplying the names of human rights workers to paramilitaries.

'New generation' of paramilitaries?

The Black Eagles claim to be an offshoot of the United Self-defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), a coalition of paramilitary groups that formed in the 1980s to help wealthy cattle ranchers, business owners, and drug mafias battle leftist guerrillas. They were supposed to have demobilized after a controversial "peace process" with the government began in 2003.

The chief of Colombia's paramilitary reintegration program, Frank Pearl, said last month that the government had "lost track" of 4,731 demobilized fighters. Former paramilitary chief Salvatore Mancuso stated last month that groups such as Black Eagles were rearming, and now number up to 5,000.

The same month, the Organization of American States Mission to Support the Peace Process (MAPP-OEA) reported that 22 new illegal armed groups were active in 10 departments across the country.

Nowhere is the apparent rise of a "new generation" of paramilitaries on display more than in Barrancabermeja. The city has been rocked by 17 execution-style shootings so far this year, as well as three grenade attacks, one of which killed a young secretary at a real estate agency.

"The AUC in this region numbered around 5,000. Now, after demobilization, there are six or seven commando-style groups of 50 or less, such as the Black Eagles," says Eliicer Soto, a priest who serves as director of the human rights program of the Catholic diocese of Barrancabermeja.

Epicenter is the oil capital of Colombia

Josi Celdales, a farmer and community leader running for mayor of nearby Santa Rosa del Sur in October, says that he has survived four paramilitary attempts on his life since 2004. The latest of those killed his brother just last month. Celdales says that he was targeted for denouncing murders by drug-traffickers, adding: "The author of the attacks is the local commander of the Black Eagles, a demobilized AUC commander. He told me personally that he would kill me."

More:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-03-12-colombia_N.htm

[Judi Lynn]

4. Colombian Paramilitaries’ Successors Called a Threat

Colombian Paramilitaries’ Successors Called a Threat
By SIMON ROMERO
Published: February 3, 2010

CARACAS, Venezuela — Criminal armies that emerged from the ashes of the Colombian government’s attempt to disband paramilitary groups are spreading their reach across the country’s economy while engaging in a broad range of rights abuses, including massacres, rapes and forced displacement, a human rights group said Wednesday.

A report by the group, Human Rights Watch, detailed the activities of the paramilitary successor groups, which feed off Colombia’s cocaine trade. The drug trade remains lucrative despite Washington’s channeling of more than $5 billion of security and antinarcotics aid to Colombia, making it a top recipient of United States aid outside the Middle East.

“One major reason why combating these groups is not a priority is that it’s hard for the current government to acknowledge that a significant part of its security policy is failing,” said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director for Human Rights Watch, speaking in Bogotá, Colombia.

Seeking to influence the Obama administration’s policies toward Colombia, the group recommended delaying ratification of a long-awaited trade deal until Colombia’s government vigorously and effectively confronts the criminal groups, which succeeded paramilitaries formed by landowners decades ago to combat guerrillas.

President Obama said in his State of the Union address last week that he would like to strengthen trade ties with Colombia.

The Human Rights Watch report comes at a delicate time for Colombia’s president, Álvaro Uribe, who is keeping the country on edge as to whether he will seek a third term in May. In 2006, during his administration, the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, a coalition of 37 paramilitary groups, officially demobilized, and Mr. Uribe has won support for lowering violence. But he has not secured a definitive victory against these flourishing new criminal armies, or the leftist guerrillas who have waged insurgencies that have lasted for decades. And murders connected to the paramilitaries’ successors are surging once again in Medellín, a city where there had been a respite from such violence.

More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/04/world/americas/04colombia.html