From Liam Craig-Best liamcraigbest@yahoo.com Continuation of Army-Paramilitary Cooperation in Barrancabermeja Jan 29, 2001 Background The port of Barrancabermeja on the Magdalena River is probably the most dangerous city on earth. Around 280,000 people live in the city and last year alone around 600 of them were assassinated. So far this year paramilitary death squads working with the Colombian army, on average, every ten hours, have assassinated somebody. For years the oil-producing city was a hotbed of political activity with three different guerrilla groups actively recruiting, a strong and progressive student movement and a very powerful trade union lobby. In recent years the city has also become home to thousands of people displaced by paramilitary violence in surrounding regions and over the last decade the city has grown substantially with extensive shantytowns spreading over surrounding lands. In the numerous poor areas of Barrancabermeja, including among the displaced communities, guerrilla groups have found a high-level of support and for many years large urban guerrilla units from the FARC, the ELN and the EPL have operated in the city. But the strategic and economic importance of Barrancabermeja meant that the Colombian elite could not allow the city to become guerrilla dominated and so, for over ten years now, the paramilitary-army alliance has been trying to wrestle control from the insurgents. Human Rights Violators and Victims in Barrancabermeja In the early 1990s the state sponsored violence began in earnest in Barrancabermeja. According to the Office of the Attorney General dozens of people began being exterminated in 1991 by a Colombian Navy intelligence unit working alongside paramilitary operatives. Amongst the victims of the intelligence network were three CREDHOS (Regional Committee for the Defence of Human Rights) workers - Blanca Cecilia Valero de Duran, Julio Berrio and Ligia Patricia Cortez - journalists, political activists, teachers, students and trade union leaders. These killings were planned and carried out under the command of Colonel Rodrigo Quinonez Cardenas, intelligence director of the Colombian Navy. Despite evidence implicating Colonel Quinonez and other members of the armed forces, the military court in which they were tried cleared senior officers of any involvement in the killings committed by the intelligence network. This ruling was reached even though investigations conducted by the Office of the Attorney General concluded that "denunciations (corroborated with other pieces of evidence) unequivocally point to Colonel Rodrigo Quinonez as the 'boss' of this enterprise [intelligence network] and all these crimes". Throughout the 1990s these types of crimes increased in frequency and ferocity and it soon became clear that the vast majority of the human rights violations in Barrancabermeja were being, and, indeed still are being, carried out by soldiers of, or paramilitary units linked to, the Nueva Granada Battalion (New Granada Battalion) in the city. According to the 51st session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights "Most of the arrests in Barrancabermeja are carried out by Army and Police personnel, including their security and intelligence services. According to a report prepared by several NGOs on torture and arbitrary detention in the region, in a large number of the cases studied the detainees "were taken to the military installations of the Nueva Granada Battalion headquarters in Barrancabermeja and tortured there. Of the total number of reported detentions, 43 were tortured in the place where they were detained, 94 in the army barracks of the Nueva Granada Battalion, 52 in the Battalion's own installations and 21 were first tortured on military bases and then taken to the Battalion, where the torture continued." There have also been documented cases of people being detained at the Battalion, then declared as escapees and subsequently found dead and covered in signs of severe torture. Even a US State Department Colombian Human Rights Report talks of "an incident that occurred in June in Barrancabermeja in which members of the Nueva Granada Battalion detained the son of a local labor leader in an effort to exact information about local guerrilla activity. They tied the person naked to a stake on an anthill, threatened him with rape and then almost suffocated him with a plastic bag". On May 16th 1998 the New Grenada Battalion jointly coordinated with paramilitary units one of Colombia's worst ever massacres in Barrancabermeja. Over the course of one night, while soldiers of the Battalion surrounded a guerrilla- supporting neighbourhood, a death squad entered and assassinated or 'disappeared' 36 civilians. Killings, threats and 'disappearances' all continued after the massacre including many of which were aimed at witnesses of the event. Numerous trade unionists and other social, political and community activists have also continued to be attacked by the paramilitary-army alliance well into 2000. One of the worst affected groups have been the human rights organisations that dare to operate in Barrancabermeja and on several occasions senior officers of the New Grenada Battalion have directly threatened CREDHOS members and workers. The ex-Battalion commander, Luis Fabio Garcia (who was trained in the US), directly accused two CREDHOS members of being spokespersons for the guerrillas - basically making them fair game for assassination by the death squads. In 2000 CREDHOS received over 20 threats, had staff members declared military objectives by the paramilitaries and had to close its offices on numerous occasions. Another organisation that has recently started being persecuted by the paramilitaries is the Social Solidarity Network, which provides food to aid poor and displaced residents of the city. The paramilitaries have declared that they are a guerrilla front organisation and that the food they distribute actually ends up in guerrilla hands. The New Grenada Battalion has refused the organisation any protection. According to Amnesty International there has been a dramatic increase in paramilitary forces in Barrancabermeja since December 2000. These forces have operated unhindered by the security forces, have set up several checkpoints in the city and have killed numerous people in recent weeks. On December 27th 2000 Mr Luis Maria Pinedo, the father of the disappeared Gary Pinedo was assassinated by paramilitaries. He had been active in the campaign to expose the links of the New Grenada Battalion to his son's disappearance. Current Situation in Barrancabermeja On the evening of Wednesday January 10th 2001 the Colombian government dispatched 150 elite Special Forces troops to Barrancabermeja with official orders to end the human rights abuses in the city. The following day Interior Minister Humberto de la Calle met with city leaders to discuss how to begin an intensive campaign to put an end to the assassinations and massacres. On the same day detachments of 60-strong Special Forces troops backed by tanks and armoured cars began to patrol the streets. Yet, it was all a propaganda exercise for international consumption and in reality the new army patrols change little. According to the mayor of Barrancabermeja, Julio Cesar Ardila, the new approach will do little in the long run, "What we need here is social investment, not fighting warfare with more warfare," he said. The real problem is that the US Embassy has been demanding that the Colombian government do more to appear to be combating human rights violations. The US government is acutely aware that they are giving massive amounts of military aid to the country where more human rights violations occur than in the whole of the rest of the Western Hemisphere combined. Barrancabermeja, as the one of the most high-profile human rights black spots, was the natural choice to kick of the new public relations offensive. And to a degree it has worked. The foreign press have taken the bait and begun to hail the efforts of the Colombian Government and armed forces to defend human rights in the city. On Monday January 15th the Inter Press Service talked of how President Pastrana "in response to rising violence" in Barrancabermeja, had met with ministers and military officers "to adopt measures for defending the local population". Then, on January 22nd, New York Times reporter Juan Forerro sent a long dispatch from Barrancabermeja in which he glorified the military and, to a lesser extent, attempted to justify their paramilitary allies. Forerro blatantly seemed intent on trying to blame the guerrilla forces in Barrancabermeja, rather than the death squads, for as many if not more of the overall human rights abuses. Just what the Embassy and their friends in the Colombian government wanted. According to Colombian human rights expert Dennis Grammenos the article by Forerro was "Outrageous disinformation from Juan Forero of the New York Times. Article after article has shown his willingness to transmit the spin of official sources and to misdirect. How can he claim that "instead of mass killings, the paramilitaries have, for the most part, been selectively killing rebels"?! In the first three weeks of 2001, Colombia has suffered about 30 massacres with over 200 victims, committed by the right-wing death-squads that exist with the blessings of the security forces and the intelligence apparatus. Over one thousand peasants have become refugees already because of these death-squads. These are the tactics that the paramilitaries have used for years in Colombia's dirty war. They avoid confronting guerrilla units head on. They limit their gruesome attacks on defenceless civilians". Other articles too expressed similar sentiments to Forerro in the New York Times and the general picture given was that, in Barrancabermeja at least, the Colombian government was making an effort. In fact what the media has reported on Barrancabermeja since the new government initiative began has, basically, been false. Juan Forerro's article in particular contained so many distortions of the truth as to make it appear fictional. What is also shocking with regards to the coverage that the city has been getting in the international press in recent weeks is the complete omission of the facts when it comes to talking about the New Granada Battalion. Nearly every article related to Barrancabermeja does not even mention the Battalion and their role in the crimes perpetrated and some, including the New York Times, have the audacity to quote officers of the Battalion whilst neglecting to mention the background of the unit. Such quotes might as well come direct from the mouths of the killers. The recent articles also fail to mention the continuing paramilitary crimes since the new initiative and troop deployments. The reality of the current situation is that since the extra government troops have arrived in the city the rate of paramilitary violence has not actually declined. The new troops are closely cooperating, alongside their colleagues from the New Grenada Battalion, with the paramilitary commanders in the city. And, even if the security forces and the paramilitary forces find themselves in the same place at the same time, there is evidence that they are ignoring one another. Amnesty International recently reported that on January 20th armed paramilitaries threatened numerous people and that an armoured vehicle and police officers nearby did nothing. However, in the most part it appears it appears that the paramilitaries and the security forces seem to be intentionally avoiding one another. According to a woman named Maria interviewed by the Associated Press (January 13th), "When they [the Special Forces] come by, there is never anything happening". She added that when the massacres occur the government forces are not around. The paramilitary forces, in all probability, are being given previous notification of when and where the Special Forces' patrols will take place. The fact of the matter is that human rights workers, community leaders and other civilians continue to be harassed and murdered even with the beefed up army presence. Listed below are some of the abuses carried out by the paramilitary death squads since the government decided to intervene and the new troops arrived in Barrancabermeja. The details of these incidents have come from local human rights and community groups. All of these events occurred whilst Special Forces, regular troops and police officers had a heavy presence in the city. · January 19th 2001 - During the evening paramilitaries carried out 9 assassinations of suspected guerrilla sympathisers. All were unarmed civilians. - Paramilitaries sent a message to a member of the Association of the Families of the Detained and Disappeared (ASFADDES) saying that he had 24 hours to leave the city. Due to the authorities refusal to protect the person this individual and their family were forced to leave the region and are now in hiding. · January 20th 2001 - At 3am 40 heavily armed paramilitaries entered three southeastern neighbourhoods following immediately after an army tank patrol. The inhabitants of the neighbourhoods of Alto del Campestre, Minas del Paraiso and Maria Eugenia were held at gunpoint and told "We have come to stay. We are creating employment... and anyone who doesn't want to work for us, simply won't be forced to, but will be killed... If you denounce us to the police or army... we don't care as the army and police support us, because we are achieving what they have failed to achieve in twenty years". Police officers in a nearby armoured vehicle took no action to protect the civilians from the paramilitaries and made no attempt to apprehend the armed men. The paramilitaries then entered various homes and took away the people three of who were murdered and their bodies left at the Yarima petrol station on the road leading to the city of Bucaramanga. Others were taken tied up and locked into a small wooden house painted pink that is behind the football pitch in the Altos del Campestre neighbourhood. Among the people taken to this house was Oscar Pena the local community leader. - In the neighbourhood of Villareli paramilitaries told 15 families that they must leave the city before 6pm or they would all be assassinated - security forces declined to protect the families. - Paramilitaries killed 7 other unarmed civilians whom they accused of supporting the guerrillas. - Paramilitaries set three public buses on fire in the city. - Paramilitaries tried to force their way into the house of Mr Francisco Garcia an active member of ASFADDES since May 16th 1998 when his son Ricky Nelson Garcia was detained and subsequently disappeared. The paramilitaries machine-gunned the front door of his house although police who later arrived on the scene made no effort to pursue the attackers even though residents told them exactly where the paramilitary unit had gone. · January 24th 2001 - At 5.20pm a paramilitary unit commanded by Hober Morales (alias 'Bolivar' or 'David') entered the Villarelis neighbourhood in the southeastern part of the city and threatened residents. Army units that arrived on the scene some time later said that there had been no paramilitaries in the area. - At around 6pm a paramilitary truck entered the northeastern area of the city. Shots were fired from the truck at various houses and people from the neighbourhood. One person was seriously injured. - At 8.30pm, after being informed by human rights groups that paramilitaries were present in the Las Granjas and Kennedy neighbourhoods, Colonel Moreno Velez, commander of the New Grenada Battalion, told human rights organisations that it was difficult for his men to go there as there might be bombs in the area. January 25th 2001 - At noon a death squad left a well-known paramilitary base in the Miraflores neighbourhood and travelled to the Chicho neighbourhood where they fired shots into the locality. Between the two locations were various army checkpoints. - In the evening inhabitants of the Las Torres neighbourhood began to leave the area after being threatened by paramilitary forces. · January 27th 2001 - At 11am paramilitaries turned up at the offices of the 'Organizacion Femenina Popular' (OFP - Popular Women's Organisation), located in the Prado-Campestre neighbourhood in southeastern Barrancabermeja and demanded that the keys to the building be handed over. The women refused to hand over the keys and the paramilitaries said that they were going to talk to "Commander Freddy, because at 4pm we need this building and the leader of your organisation is going to hand them over." At 1.05pm the paramilitaries returned and threatened the women in the office saying that they would have to hand over the building or else they would knock down the doors and take it by force. · General Paramilitary Activity in Recent Days - Paramilitary death squads have been taking possession of abandoned buildings as well as the homes of those whom have fled due to the threats that they have received. The security forces have been informed of exactly what buildings the paramilitaries are based in but they have not acted - despite the fact that they are making regular searches of homes and businesses in neighbourhoods that are known to be sympathetic to guerrilla forces. (Juan Forerro in the New York Times unbelievably writes that the paramilitaries are actually paying for these houses! Houses of people they have threatened to kill!) - An Amnesty International Urgent Action dated January 26th 2001 noted that paramilitary checkpoints have been set up in Barrancabermeja and that "although the precise locations have been reported to the security forces, they have taken no action to confront the paramilitaries". - The same Amnesty International Urgent Action reports that a group of around 40 paramilitaries in Barrancabermeja have been travelling around the city announcing that they are soon to attack displaced civilians in three neighbourhoods in the northwestern sector of the city (Las Granjas, Kennedy and Progreso). Again the security forces have not acted to protect the residents of these areas. - According to a recent e-mail (January 27th) from the Popular Women's Organisation in Barrancabermeja (a group founded by the Catholic Church in 1972 that runs health and education campaigns and raises money to feed homeless people and send poor students to college) a crowd of around 100 paramilitaries have regularly been gathering at night in the northeastern sector of the city and threatening people. The e-mail also describes how the paramilitaries are taking possession of various buildings in the area (many vacated by fleeing residents) even though there is an increased presence of the security forces in the area. - A paramilitary base has been operating in the Miraflores neighbourhood of Barrancabermeja since December 22nd yet the new Special Forces troops and other security forces in the city have so far ignored it despite being aware of its presence. - In recent weeks paramilitaries have been summoning people to a base that they have in the Punta del Palo area of the city. If people do not go they are assassinated. ASFADDES reports that the whereabouts of at least two of the people summoned are not now known. Again the authorities have been informed of the location of the base but have not acted. For more information on the history of human rights violations in the city please see the excellent Amnesty International report "BARRANCABERMEJA A CITY UNDER SIEGE" at http//www.amnesty.org/ailib/aipub/1999/AMR/22303699.htm