A peace
commission appointed by President Alvaro Uribe Vélez
reportedly concluded that the leadership of the nation's US-
backed military is the principal foe of demobilizing Colombia's
main paramilitary federation, and that the federation's leaders
are trying to exploit Uribe's peace efforts to protect their
drug profits.
The Washington
Post reported the findings, part of a "confidential
assessment," the day after the commission recommended that
the government launch formal negotiations with the federation,
the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC). Based on a
six-
month review, the assessment called it "impossible to
differentiate between the self-defense groups and narco-
trafficking organizations," according to the newspaper.
The news
undermines efforts by Uribe to cast the AUC as a legitimate
political group. And it further complicates US support for
negotiations with the AUC, classified by the State Department
as
a terrorist group since 2001. Last September, the US Justice
Department requested the extradition of AUC leaders Carlos
Castaño, Salvatore Mancuso and Juan Carlos Sierra-
Ramírez to face drug-trafficking charges.
The AUC
consists
of paramilitary groups that began forming in the 1980s with
support from large ranchers, business owners, drug traffickers
and elements of the official military. The paramilitaries said
their aim was to ward off extortion and kidnappings by the
nation's leftist guerrillas. But the AUC often focuses on
displacing campesinos from valuable land. Civilian massacres by
paramilitaries account for most of the 3,500 annual deaths in
Colombia's war. The AUC also targets human rights advocates,
labor organizers, journalists, electoral candidates and
judges.
The number of
AUC fighters nationwide reached about 13,000 last year. Many,
including top commanders, once served in the official
military.
Uribe, who took
office last August, said he would consider formal talks with
the
AUC if it declared a ceasefire. In December, the federation did
so and Uribe appointed the six-member peace commission. On June
25, the panel announced its recommendation to begin
negotiations
"under the condition that there is a total and verifiable
ceasefire, with the main goal being the demobilization and
reincorporation to society of paramilitaries."
But the
commission, according to the Post, noted that "cessation
of
hostilities has not been complied with" and that
paramilitary leaders expect "security and development for
the regions they occupy," "legalization of a part of
their fortune" and "judicial security."
The commission
found that the AUC controls about 40 percent of the nation's
drug trafficking, the newspaper added. A handful of drug
kingpins pose as paramilitary commanders, and regional drug
traffickers rely on the group for security in exchange for a
share of profits.
Events around
the country bolster this account. On June 17, at least 12
suspected AUC members attacked a police unit as it inspected an
abandoned truck in the northern town of Calabazo, Magdalena
Province, according to officials. The confrontation killed two
of the officers and injured another. The truck contained
chemicals for processing cocaine.
On June 19,
Colombian marines seized three tons of cocaine from an
abandoned
truck near the southwestern port of Tumaco, Nariño
Province. Officials say the cargo was destined for the United
States and belonged to a paramilitary group.
Colombia
produces about 90 percent of the US cocaine supply. AUC members
have said in interviews that most of the proceeds go toward
enriching individual paramilitary commanders.
A condition of
Colombia's US military aid, which totals about $600 million a
year, is that the official security forces sever their
paramilitary links. But the panel's assessment says the peace
process "has had serious incidents of obstruction from the
Armed Forces" and that opposition to demobilization
"exists at the highest ranks," according to the Post.
Colombian military officials reportedly said dissolving the AUC
would hamper their war against the guerrillas.
The newspaper
said its copy of the assessment came from "Rodrigo,"
chief of the Metro Bloc, a paramilitary group in the Medellin
area that split from the AUC last year.
A few hours
after the Post report, chief government peace negotiator Luis
Carlos Restrepo Ramírez said his office "had no
knowledge" of the assessment and called it
"apocryphal."
In support of
the Uribe administration, the United States plans to offer aid
for training, education, land and other incentives to
paramilitary combatants who agree to disarm. This plan follows
a
US refusal to participate in negotiations between President
Andrés Pastrana's government and the 18,000-member
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the largest
guerrilla group. Those talks collapsed in February 2002.
On July 20, the
Uribe administration plans to introduce legislation for parole
of some jailed paramilitaries.
Human rights
advocates have urged Uribe not to grant amnesties to
paramilitary leaders. Government ombudsperson Eduardo Cifuentes
Muñoz applauded peace efforts but warned of
"impunity for atrocious crimes against humanity,"
according to the Bogot· weekly El Espectador. He said the
talks could "legalize" paramilitaries and leave them
with the land they seized from campesinos.
Marco Romero of
the nongovernmental organization Peace Colombia told InterPress
Service that demobilized AUC fighters might become government
troops and informants. The Uribe administration has implemented
a program in which rural civilians become part-time army
soldiers in their hometowns. Another Uribe program enlists
civilians to spy on accused guerrillas.
An AUC
demobilization could also leave thousands of paramilitaries.
Since last summer, at least five AUC factions have emerged.
Rodrigo's group and another splinter have refused to
participate
in the peace talks.
Reprinted
with permission from Colombia Week. Subscribe to that free
bulletin by writing to colombiaweek@mn.rr.com.
&
quot; (c) 2003 Colombia Week.
SOURCES:
Associated Press, 6/19/03; Cambio, 6/16/03; El Espectador,
6/18/03, 6/26/03, 6/27/03; El Tiempo, 6/17/03, 6/20/03,
6/25/03,
6/26/03; InfoBrief, 6/23/03; InterPress Service, 6/20/03; Los
Angeles Times, 6/9/03; Reuters, 6/25/03; Washington Post,
6/26/03. Additional research and analysis by Colombia Week.
Also in this
section::
Panama News Briefs
On the campaign
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Colombian Army hinders AUC
demobilization
Legislative Assembly session
ends
Mireya goes to
Washington
Coyote faces death
penalty
