In Colombia, paramilitary gangs control much of Guajira state

[Judi Lynn]

In Colombia, paramilitary gangs control much of Guajira state



Raul Arboleda / AFP/Getty Images

WEAPONS CACHE: Colombian police with an arsenal seized from a
paramilitary group last month in Medellin. Even after 31,000
fighters laid down their arms in a 2006 demobilization, much
of the nation is still infested with paramilitary gangs.

Many of the former self-protection forces have turned to extortion. The Wayuu tribe's unique position makes it an attractive target.
By Chris Kraul, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
August 31, 2008

RIOHACHA, COLOMBIA -- Omaira Arismendi's assassin didn't get very far. After he shot the grocery store owner, neighboring merchants pummeled the thug to within an inch of his life.

But the seeds of terror were sown in the ramshackle maze of shops called New Market, the largest outdoor bazaar in this city on Colombia's Caribbean coast.

Arismendi, a retired bank branch manager who opened the store OK Groceries to keep busy, was killed this month after refusing to make extortion payments to the Black Eagles, the gang believed to control much of the commerce in Riohacha, prosecutors said.

The killing of Arismendi was a reminder that even after 31,000 fighters laid down their arms in a government-sponsored demobilization, much of Colombia is still infested with paramilitary gangs.

"The only thing that has changed is the name," said one dispirited city official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Before, they were paramilitaries; now, they are Black Eagles. They act and behave the same."

~snip~
Nearly as attractive to the paramilitaries were the enormous profits the Wayuu reaped by bringing in discounted Venezuelan grocery items intended for Chavez's cut-rate Mercal retail chain. The Wayuu repackaged much of the items as Colombian goods, and sold them at huge markups. The militias get their piece of the pie by extorting money from store owners.


More:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-thugs31-2008aug31,0,3554012.story

[Judi Lynn]

1. Want to know more about the Wayuu people these P.O.S.'s are preying upon?

Juin 14th - 20th 2004 -Publication: The Big Issue in the North,
Great Britain

Hundreds of Wayuu Indians have been displaced after a violent massacre recently took place in the Guajira region of Colombia.

The massacres of what is estimated to be 100 Wayuu Indians by Colombian drug traffickers and paramilitaries has seen hundreds more Wayuu Indians flee over the border into Venezuela where they are now living in fear and poverty.

Maria Pinallo, a 40 year old Wayuu Indian, once lived raising goats with her six children in Bahia de Portee, a little port in the Guajira desert of Colombia. Three years ago, Jose Maria Borros, a.k.a. 'El Che Mabala", increased drug trafficking in the port. "A drug factory was built, planes would land there, many foreigners came to buy contraband," tells Maria. "When the wind would blow hard, our children would get sick from the citric acid and all the ingredients they put in cocaine. News of the indigenous families´ complaints soon found its way to El Che Mabala. One morning, they came with the Paramilitaries to exterminate us."

On April 18th, at 7am, approximately 200 armed men surrounded the 50 ranches of Bahia Portete. "In the desert, we can see people coming from far away, which saved our lives," explains Maria. She didn't have time to close her door or to take anything. She grabbed her youngest child in her arms and told everyone to run as fast as they could. Many didn't have time to escape.

Jose Vincente is only 8 years old. His mother told him to run and hide otherwise they would kill him. "I was running so fast... the sand was coming in my eyes... I was blinded" says the child. "I didn't have time to put my shoes on - my feet were hurting me so much." Jose Vincente draws in the sand how he escaped from the paramilitaries. He is certain that "they had my name on a list, they wanted to kill me…" The young boy describes the paramilitaries he saw as all wearing moustaches and military suits with 40 buttons. He saw them killing men, women and children without mercy, decapitating them, cutting them in pieces, "like raw meat with their machetes". He also reported seeing people being burned alive.

~snip~
The paramilitaries massacred everyone who did not escape. They only let one old man go after shooting him in one hand and cutting his other hand to pieces, ordering him to tell the others to never come back. The wounded hands had to be subsequently amputated in a Venezuelan hospital. The victime says he does not never want to come back.

Hundreds of Wayuu walked for days in the desert, without food or water, until trucks picked them up and helped them cross the border. Five days later the Colombia army arrived in the village and found pieces of dead bodies spread all over the area. Only 30 bodies were found. More than 80 are missing. "Probably drowned in the sea or buried," suppose the Wayuu. By the time the army arrived, the paramilitaries had fled. "El Che Mabala has his contacts. They knew the army was coming," accuses Maria. Today there is no one left in Bahia Portete. "A ghost town, with the spirits of the dead," continues Maria, holding back tears. "Why did they cut the people in pieces? They are butchers. There was nothing left to bury".

More:
http://gsevenier.online.fr/massacrescolombiaENGBigIssue.htm



The wooden corral encircles the site of the massacre of 2 Wayuu boys in September 2003. They
went to the police to report the narcotrafficking mafia (paramilitaries) that was operating
on their land; they were killed and cut up into pieces by the paramilitaries.

More photos:
http://carolinapeace.org/gallery/LaGuajira?page=9

[Judi Lynn]

2. SAND TEARS OF THE DESERT WAYUU:

SAND TEARS OF THE DESERT WAYUU:

To commemorate the 2nd anniversary of the Bahia Portete massacre

~snip~

The barbarism against the Wayuu has not stopped, even though the zone has been militarized under the excuse of protecting this town and despite the promise of Colombian Vice-President Santos that he will not allow one single more death to the members of this community. Yet, the government continues to turn a blind eye to the murders that have occurred after the massacre. Such is the case of Edilia Epinayuu, one of the witnesses of the massacre and murdered by the paramilitaries on the 13th of July of the year 2005. The government refuses to acknowledge the complicity of the military and paramilitaries that we were able to observe and it does not have ears to listen to the threats that are raised constantly against the Wayuu people and its leaders. In the zone of this scene of torture, where the Colombian military is posted to “take care of” the houses, where torture rape and death occurred in the middle of the burning desert of salt and sand, appeared vulgar graffiti reminders of the acts of rape and other crimes that were committed against a dignified people. We also saw recently made threats written on the walls against their leader, Debora Barros Fince, who has fought to assure that the horrible acts committed against her people be not forgotten or fall in impunity.

Though the massacre occurred two years ago, there continues to be exerted physical, moral and psychological violence against this town, without intervention by the government forces purported to protect it. In this visit to Bahia Portete, the participants to the Yanama encounter were able to observe that, in the area controlled by the government, the indigenous houses are being destroyed and roofs, water tanks and doors are being dismantled. With this action the government attempts to erase the memory of the landscape and dwellings from the minds of the people.
THE UPROOTING OF THE WAYUU PEOPLE AND THE LOSS IN TOTALITY OF THEIR TERRITORY IS A REAL AND GRAVE SITUATION. Only four families still live in Bahia Portete. The process of return of the displaced people, promoted by the vice president of the republic, Francisco Santos in 2004, was a false return where people who were not from the area at all were brought only for public relation purposes, to give a false appearance of return by the victims.

Also of grave concern is the presence of the multinational mining corporations, Glencore, Anglo American, and BHP Billiton that have been exploiting the resources of the Guajira for the last twenty years, removing the coal from the heart of the Mother Earth, without benefiting in any way the indigenous people. This multinational conglomerate formed when they purchased the “rights” from Hillock in 2002, which was then operated by Exxon. Though the government offers no guarantee of security for the return of our Wayuu people, these mining activities have been the justification of militarization of the ancestral territory by the Colombian Army, who protects the mining interests such as infrastructure. In Media Luna, for one example, they have installed barb wire around the territory and the indigenous people can not walk freely and cannot visit their cemetery. The military has not been able to protect the Wayuu but the wall of iron protects foreign interests.

The participants in this Yanama gathering shared with us the tears of the women, the breakers of the sea that broke in our hearts as the waves did on the beaches, the breakers of sea that in each tide approached and washed away the memories of their parents, children, grandsons, spouses, brothers. We went to claim the rights of the Wayuu people to feel the breezes of the sea in their own desert home and so that the infamous history of death, torture and disappearance perpetrated by the paramilitary in the territory of the Wayuu is not left in forgetfulness and impunity; so that the transnational companies do not profit from the war in this country by state complicity; so that they do not imprison with fences the indigenous territory and inhabitants. We find that the government has great heart for the multinationals and strong arms against the Wayuu.

In this document the organizations below affirm their commitment to engage their organizations in support of the secure return of the displaced Wayuu and to inform their respective communities of the violence committed against the indigenous people of La Guajira and of the close relationship between the Colombian military and the paramilitary. We call for the Colombian government to:1) guarantee the life and integrity of all the members of the desert town of the WAYUU, especially of its leader Debora Barros Fince, who received new death threats during this second Yanama; 2) respect the territory and property of the Wayuu; 3) work to guarantee the existence of economic security of the resources worthy of this town; 4) join the Wayuu in seeking justice in the 9th Circuit Court and officially condemn and seek punishment of the perpetrators of this attempted genocide against the Wayuu people and community so that these facts are not left in impunity and forgetfulness.

http://babs.selfip.net/~www/projects/wayuu_solidarity_campaign.htm