Actualidad Colombiana

Vol. 14, No. 350 - November 27 to December 12, 2002

CONTENTS

Section: Human Rights

Title: A ray of hope

Section: Human Rights

Title: Safeguarding the medical mission

Section: Social Movements

Title: The heart of the world beats for war

Section: Politics

Title: Blatantly unconstitutional

Section: Social Movements

Title: Civil Society proposals

Section: Political Section

A RAY OF HOPE

Signs of a possible Humanitarian Agreement from the government

Family members of those sequestered by armed illegal groups operating in Colombia have now been given some reason for hope. There was confirmation at the end of November that the government is seeking direct talks with the FARC in order to reach a humanitarian solution to this problem. The government had already, a few days previous to this, announced its intention to continue its talks with the ELN. Its political strategy also includes dialogue with the auto-defense groups.

This has been confirmed by Luis Carlos Restrepo, Peace Commissioner, who will represent the government in talks with delegates from the FARC in Venezuela. In a change of strategy, President Alvaro Uribe Velez, who, at the beginning of his term, said that he would only accept the UN as a guarantor of the talks, has accepted the French government in this role.

On hearing this news, the husband of ex-presidential candidate, Ingrid Betancourt, expressed satisfaction: "I think that it is very good that President Uribe has decided to do this. It is what I suggested he do when I met with him in his office." Ingrid Betancourt was abducted by FARC guerrillas on February 23 of this year while on her way to San Vicente del Caguan (Caqueta). Since then the French government and various French organizations have been working for her liberty.

The first meeting will be held before the end of the year. President Uribe and Hugo Chavez President of Venezuela spoke at length about the problem and the possibility of talks in a meeting in Santa Marta, Colombia, in the middle of November.

Different proposals concerning possible humanitarian agreements had been made in the weeks previous to the government announcement. Ex-President Alfonso Lopez Michelsen suggested a proposal in his Sunday column in the newspaper, EL TIEMPO; various organizations involved in promoting peace initiatives in collaboration with representatives of the church and of relatives of the sequestered urged the government to seek out ways to reach a humanitarian agreement and the president of the House of Representatives, William Velez, a close political ally of Uribe, had also submitted a similar proposal to the national government.

Some sectors, including family members of the sequestered, had felt little hope of such a possibility in part because of the Colombian politics of democratic security and also because of the U.S. classification of the FARC as a terrorist group. This group's inclusion on the U.S. terrorist list had resulted in approval in Congress for the Bush government's petition to use military aid in Colombia, not only against the drug traffic, but also against those groups designated as terrorists by the U.S.A.

At the present time the FARC is holding 23 politicians: present and past congress-persons, an ex-presidential candidate, the governor of Antioquia, and the Antioquian peace commissioner, among others. In addition, various soldiers, members of the police force and other officials and sub-officials, who were kidnapped various years ago, are still being held by the FARC.

The FARC is demanding liberty for all of its guerrillas who are imprisoned in Colombian prisons in exchange for these 23 politicians and 47 officials and sub-officials kidnapped by them.

The government has made clear that it is not demanding a ceasefire as a pre-condition for these talks. It has, however, stated that it would demand a ceasefire before beginning any peace negotiations.

There are also glimmers of hope for an agreement with the ELN. Commissioner Luis Carlos Restrepo and the Colombian ambassador to Cuba, Julio Londono Paredes, are heading up talks with this group with whom they have already held various meetings. They are asking for a ceasefire in exchange for the realization of the National Convention demanded by the ELN.

Key issues affecting the entire country would be the themes of this convention in which organized representative sectors of the country would participate. In order to facilitate it, the government, in private meetings with some members of Congress, has said that it would be willing to demilitarize some areas of the country, possibly two, though it hasn't specified which ones. The President has asked the Congress of the Republic to approve the extension of the Public Order Law, which includes authorization for demilitarizing zones, in order to advance talks with the illegal armed groups.

The ELN is also holding various people whom they have kidnapped, including some deputies from the Departmental Assembly of the Cauca Valley and some tourists who had been traveling in the Bahia Solano municipality in Choco when they were kidnapped.

Contacts with this group began again at the beginning of the year, at the end of Andres Pastrana's term, when 23 municipal mayors from eastern Antioquia initiated a peace process. As a result of their efforts, government spokespersons, mayors from eastern Antioquia and ELN delegates met together in February in Cuba.

Until this meeting, it was thought that the Pastrana government had relegated the possibility of negotiating with the ELN to the back burner in order not to complicate negotiations being carried out with the FARC since the beginning of his term in the demilitarized zone of Caguan.

Carlos Castano's announcement in November that he was stepping down as political leader of the Auto-Defense Groups of Colombia (AUC) opened the way for talks with that group which, since the beginning of 2002, has been under the command of Salvatore Mancuso.

Mancuso made a public statement to the effect that the AUC would call a truce at the end of the year. Monsignor Pedro Rubiano Saenz, President of the Colombian Episcopal Conference, said that representatives of the AUC had met with church spokespersons and had expressed their wish to sever their connection with drug trafficking and begin a peace process.

This desire on the part of the AUC for dialogue and the government's receptive response to it increases the possibility of reaching humanitarian agreements with the guerrilla.

However, the very likely possibility that the USA will seek the extradition of various members of the AUC due to their involvement in the export of illegal drugs to the USA would negatively affect a peace process in Colombia. Interior Minister, Fernando Londono Hoyos, speaking about this possibility, said that, "if, as a result of these talks, any one of these armed groups commits itself to abandon the planting, processing and commercialization of drugs, it seems to me that the USA would have to be satisfied. Their great wish, I believe, isn't so much to punish those who have been involved in these transgressions as it is to make sure that they don't continue to export drugs."

A few weeks previous to this, Carlos Castano stated that he would not be willing to submit to Colombian justice because he has no confidence in it, but that he would be willing to give himself up to the United States.

Section: Human Rights

A nation-wide day for the promotion of respect for the work of the medical profession

SAFEGUARDING THE MEDICAL MISSION

Next December 3rd, Pan-American Day of the Doctor, a nation-wide day for the promotion of respect for the work of the medical profession will take place. Its purpose is to make known, on both the national and international levels, the gravity of the violations committed against the medical profession as one of the consequences of the internal conflict; to carry out actions designed to protect the personnel, facilities, and the work of the medical profession; and to demand of all the armed players that they commit themselves to respect International Humanitarian Law.

According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, between 1995 and 1998 there were 468 violations to the Medical Mission. 72.8% of these involved a threat to life and personal integrity. In 1998 alone there were violations registered everyday and a half, to a total of 220 violations occurring that year.

Every health facility in the country is being asked to raise the flag of the Medical Mission 12:00 P.M on December 3rd. They are also being urged to read the letter sent to the armed players and to hold open discussions on the violations that the mission has suffered. People are also being asked to participate in the phone-in conference which is scheduled to take place from 8:00 A.M. until 10:00 A.M. in the Sena facilities across the country.

This National day of protest is one of the many initiatives being carried out by civil society in its struggle to ensure respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law.

Information:
movimientosalud@hotmail.com 338 03 03 Bogota
indepaz@col.nodo.apc.ort 256 13 54 2561357 Bogota

Look in our web page: www.actualidadcolombiana.org

THE SPECIAL REPORT

WHO IS THE WAR AGAINST? ONE HUNDRED CRITICAL DAYS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

Evaluation of Uribe Velez's first one hundred days done by: Data bank of Human Rights and Political Violence (Banco de Datos de Derechos Humanos y Violencia Politica) from Cinep and Justice and Peace, the Advisory Body for Human Rights and Displacement (Consultoria Para Los Derechos Humanos y El Desplazamiento), Codhes and the National Unionist School (Escuela Nacional Sindical, ENS).

Section: Social Movements

THE HEART OF THE WORLD BEATS FOR WAR

Association of Interdisciplinary Work (Asociacion de Trabajo Interdisciplinario, ATI)

The north of the country is now the scene of genocide. This has been documented in the Ombudsman's Resolution of Defense 024, 2002, (Resolucion Defensorial) and the Workshop for Support of the Indigenous People (Mesa de Trabajo en Apoyo a los Pueblos Indigenas). The indigenous authorities have been unequivocal in their pronouncements about the responsibility of the national government, the State entities, and the armed players in regards to the events that are gravely threatening their rights as ancestral people who, as such, are deserving of and have the right to the special protection of national legislation and to the protection provided by the international treaties signed by the Colombian State.

This present grave threat to the human rights of the indigenous people is a consequence of the infractions of the regulations contained in International Humanitarian Law. These violations are deepening the risk to their civil and political rights, their social, economic and cultural rights and, especially, to their collective rights upon which their physical and cultural survival are based:

Since ancient times four indigenous peoples have lived in the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta, the highest coastal mountain range in the world: the Iku (Arhuacos), the Wiwa, the Kogui, and the Kankuamos. These communities are characterized by their spirituality and by their understanding that their mission on earth is to safeguard the equilibrium in nature and in all the beings who live on it. Their traditional way of working under the guidance of the Mamo is based on this protective principle.

They are peaceful cultures for whom the shedding of blood and war are grave acts which are in opposition to the fulfillment of their fundamental reason for being, their spiritual laws and their cultural survival. War and its origins are inexplicable in their cosmic understanding of the world. Its occurrence on their lands is traumatic.

A disputed territory

The Santa Marta Sierra Nevada, located in the extreme north of the country, is one of the geographic areas named by Unesco as patrimony of humanity due to its biological and cultural diversity. The strategic corridor extends from the Venezuelan border to Uraba and includes the plains in Cesar and the Cienaga Grande of Santa Marta which are a passageway to the Cordoba region. In addition, it is situated in the area which is richest in water in that it is fed by all the water resources that are used in the 13 municipalities and agricultural export industries in the plains of the northern Colombian coast.

Because of these geographic characteristics and its strategic location, the Sierra Nevada and the Serrania del Perija are presently the center of dispute between the different armed players. In addition, their nearness to the sea puts them even further at risk due to the contraband logistical supply activity carried out there by the different armed illegal groups and the drug-trafficking sectors. Other factors contributing to their vulnerability are the mega-projects planned for the region.

Creation of alliances

Faced with this situation and with the inevitable continuity of the war, indigenous groups are organizing themselves in order to formulate proposals aimed at minimizing the impact of the conflict in their territories.

Indigenous people from four different organizations, the Tayrona Indigenous Confederation (I'ka (Arhuaca), the Tayrona Bunkuanarwa Yugumaiun Wiwa Organization (Wiwa-Kogui), the Kankuamu Indigenous Organization and the Tayrona Gunnavindua Organization initiated the Cabildos Territorial Council of the Sierra Nevada in Santa Marta (Consejo Territorial de Cabildos de la Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta), CTC, as a way to create a space for unified action in which these four Governing Councils of the Sierra Nevada are represented. The CTC acts as a body that articulates and coordinates their common tasks in the national and international spheres and keeps abreast of the actions planned for their territories from these spheres. It is more than an alliance; the CTC is the seed that will give rise to the creation of the Sierra Nevada Indigenous Territorial Body (Entidad Territorial Indigena de la Sierra Nevada). It understands and articulates the most fundamental needs and problems of the indigenous groups and purports to lead the way to the construction of an indigenous government based on the principles of autonomy, territory and culture.

It is for this reason that the Workshop for the Support of the Indigenous Peoples of the Sierra Nevada and Serrania del Perija (Mesa de Trabajo en Apoyo a los Pueblos Indigenas de la Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta y la Serrania del Perija) made up of social organizations, government institutions, the Public Ministry, international organizations, and NGO's was created. It operates within the guidelines of the indigenous authorities with the following objectives:

A series of coordinating strategies in relation to these objectives have been designed by the organisms involved in protection and accompaniment and by the indigenous organizations in order develop a permanent response action to this crisis.

Actions to be taken immediately are:

The indigenous councils went on a diplomatic tour in Bogota from the 11th to the 16th of March. There they met with the High Commissioner of the United Nations for Human Rights in Colombia, with members of the diplomatic corps, with state security entities, with the High Commissioner for Peace and with civil servants from the Human Rights office of the Vice-president of the Republic.

Their goal was to reach agreements on ways to ensure their cultural survival. To this end, measures to increase accompaniment were initiated as well as ways to promote dialogue with the players around the need for humanitarian agreements.

Note: "To give a gun to one of our young people for the ostensible purpose of defending his people and culture is more than an error. Peace is not achieved by killing our brothers; it is not with arms that we live in accordance with our spiritual laws."

To contribute to the cultural survival of our people is to permit ourselves to retake our future into our own hands and to respect our own internal dynamism as the solution to our problems."

Mamos Document presented to the Humanitarian Mission 2000.

ACTUALIDAD FORUM

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100 days, 1000 days, 100 years: Time and politics in Colombian life
Luis I. Sandoval M.

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Section: Politics

BLATANTLY UNCONSTITUTIONAL

The labor reform bill presented by the government is contrary to the most minimal basic principles of labor.

Enrique Borda Villegas
Labor lawyer, Secretary General of the Political and Social Front

The first thing that must be done with respect to the current labor reform bill is to determine if it is constitutional. It is, of course, the duty of Congress to do this. We have analyzed the bill and the bill report and have found that they are unconstitutional.

Article 53 of the Political Constitution:

"Congress will draw up the work statute. The corresponding law will take into account at least the following minimal fundamental principles:

There is no mention made in either the government bill or in the bill report of article 53 of the Constitution. On the contrary, other reform principles, absolutely different and foreign to the minimum fundamental principles which are laid out in the afore-mentioned standard, are proclaimed, such as "cooperate, share and compete." These evoke a divergent philosophical posture to that proposed by the constituent assembly in the Charter of 1991.

The government, in presenting this reform bill and bill report, is acting totally contrary to the prevailing political Constitution. The content of these documents does not reflect the most minimal fundamental principles already transcribed and in some articles contradicts them, to wit:

Unconstitutionality by omission

The 1991 political constitution in article 53 sets a preemptory obligation on Congress to expedite the Work Statute. The constituent assembly's intent in doing this was to create efficiency in the mandate of article 25 which protects labor in all its forms as a basic good of the nation and fundamental right by means of labor legislation which reflects the basic principles which the same article consecrated. Now, almost 12 years since the inauguration of the Charter, Congress has archived various bills of the Work Statute that were passed without their having been finalized. This is what is called a violation of the Charter by omission - the non-compliance of an obligation established in this same Constitution.

Section: Social Movements

CIVIL SOCIETY PROPOSALS

Under the title Colombia in the Global Village: Citizen Agenda for Peace held a seminar that was convoked by Planeta Paz. Its conclusions will be presented soon to the Government, the Congress and to all social sectors.

Almost 600 delegates from social organizations around the country met for two days in Bogota to discuss present global and national realities that affect the lives of Colombians and to make proposals for dealing with them:

To have a popular consultation about the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA); to reject the referendum being promoted by the Uribe government; to work on humanitarian accords that would allow for the release of those people presently sequestered by the illegal armed groups; to insist upon the search for a negotiated solution to the armed conflict; and to reject the fumigation of the illegal crops. These, among others, are the proposals suggested in the 12 workshops.

The event was organized by the project Planet Paz which works with 12 social grass-roots sectors and by the participants in the Citizen Workshops for an Agenda for Peace which is made up of organizations such as Redepaz, National Association of Manufacturing Workers, ANDI, the National Professional Council, the Permanent Assembly for Peace, the Workers Unitarian Central, and the Women's Pacific Route, among others.

There were two panels during the first part of the event: Globalization: Development, Environment and Peace; and the Politics of International Anti-Terrorism. Various international invited speakers intervened in these panels: Gabrielle Muzio, environmental consultant to various European and Latin American governments; Dario Azellini, investigator and specialist in global social movements at the University of Berlin; Marco Queiroga, member of the Workers Party of Brazil and coordinator of the program for the rehabilitation of the central area of Sao Paulo; Marck Chernick, academic from the University of Georgetown (U.S.A.), specialist in the politics of the USA toward Colombia; Miguel Angel Bastenier, sub-director of the Newspaper, El Pais, in Madrid, who spoke about communication in the global context; and Alex Lee, political counselor and economist from the United States Embassy in Colombia.

It was proposed that a referendum on the FTAA, similar to those that have been done in some European countries, be held because some social sectors consider that they will be negatively affected by this agreement which is scheduled to go into effect in 2005.

Two distinct manners of opposing the referendum proposed by Uribe were presented: abstention - because this would avoid the risk of the referendum obtaining the necessary one fourth participation of the registered voters (a little more than six million) which would ensure its validation; and - the no vote - in order to show support for the process of participation.

The efforts to reach humanitarian agreements that permit not only the liberation of those people who have been kidnapped but also respect for International Humanitarian Law and the civil population, have enormous support. But those who are working on this issue insist that an agreement for the liberation of the kidnapped people must avoid discussion of possible laws concerning exchange of prisoners or of the granting of political status. They also believe that such an agreement should not be considered as the first step toward a new peace negotiation.

The fumigation of the illegal crops has also generated controversy. The counselor of the United State embassy, Alex Lee, states that it was impossible to manually eradicate more than 150 thousand hectares of coca in Colombia and that to pay those who are switching over to legal crops, without the threat of force (fumigations), has been shown not to work, as in Putumayo where money used for this purpose was "lost." The vice-rector of the National University, Leopoldo Munera, refutes this and has stated that the spraying of glifosato has increased the amount of land used in the production of coca and that the studies made by the Department of State since the 60's have always contradicted the evidence.

The following are some of the proposals that were suggested: television time for the social sectors of society similar to those of the political parties; the end to the penalization of those that cultivate illegal crops and support for peaceful resistance in the all the social sectors, not only against the war but also against the measures that threaten democracy, justice and economic, social and cultural rights for all Colombians.

Translated by: Anne M. Boylon
Colombia Support Network's Translator

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