CounterVortex

COLOMBIA: REBEL LEADER EXTRADITED, MASSACRES MOUNT

by Weekly News Update on the Americas

REBEL LEADER EXTRADITED TO U.S.

On Dec. 31 a leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Juvenal Ricardo Ovidio Palmera Pineda (alias Simon Trinidad), was taken from a maximum security Colombian prison and flown to Washington on a US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) plane. In Washington, Palmera was taken to US District Court–kept open late on New Year’s Eve, just for him–where the Justice Department said he appeared before Magistrate Judge John Facciola; he was then driven to an undisclosed location. Palmera has been indicted in the US on charges of drug trafficking, kidnapping and supporting terrorists. The US government says Palmera shipped five kilos of cocaine to the US; the kidnapping charges stem from the FARC’s February 2003 capture of US military contractors Thomas Howes, Keith Stansell and Marc Gonsalves after their plane crashed in the southern department of Caqueta.

Palmera was serving a 35-year prison sentence in Colombia after courts there convicted him of aggravated kidnapping. Palmera was a negotiator for the FARC during peace talks with the government of Andres Pastrana Arango. He was arrested in Ecuador on Jan. 2, 2004. Palmera is the first FARC leader to be extradited to the US. Alleged FARC member Nelson Vargas Rueda was extradited to the US on May 28, 2003, to face charges for the March 1999 murder of three US activists, but he was returned to Colombia on July 1 of this year after the US government dropped its case against him for lack of evidence.

The US has made 270 extradition requests to Colombia. On Nov. 24, Colombia’s Supreme Court authorized the extradition of Palmera and two leaders of the rightwing paramilitary United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC): Salvatore Mancuso and Carlos Castano. On Dec. 16, the Colombian government agreed not to extradite Mancuso, who faces drug trafficking charges in the US, as long as he complies–and pushes other AUC members to comply–with the terms of a "peace accord." All arrest orders against Mancuso are suspended while the peace process proceeds, and he travels in Colombian government vehicles under state protection. Castano disappeared last April and rumors spread that he was killed in a factional fight within the AUC; other reports suggest he may be in Israel, or in the US, where his wife, Kenia Gomez, and their daughter were recently granted asylum.

On Dec. 17, Colombian president Alvaro Uribe Velez authorized Palmera’s extradition but issued an ultimatum giving the FARC until Dec. 30 to free 63 hostages in exchange for halting the extradition. The list of hostages includes the US military contractors–Howes, Stansell and Gonsalves–along with politicians, soldiers and a German businessperson. The FARC did not respond–and did not refer to the offer in three communiques issued on Dec. 27 and 29–but had made clear in the past that it would not accept such a deal, and would only free the hostages in exchange for the release of 500 jailed rebels.

(Miami Herald, Jan. 1, Nov. 26; El Nuevo Herald, Miami, Jan. 1, Nov. 26; AP, Jan. 1; El Mostrador, Chile, Dec. 31; FARC Communiques, Dec. 27, 29)

28 DEAD IN TWO MASSACRES

On Dec. 23, several contingents of the AUC’s "Northern Bloc"–headed by Salvatore Mancuso and currently engaged in "peace negotiations" with the Colombian government–came to the Middle Catatumbo region of Norte de Santander department from Ocana municipality and the southern area of neighboring Cesar department. The paramilitaries set up a roadblock on the road that links the town center of Convencion to the village of Cartagenita in Convencion municipality, where they abducted and murdered campesino Jesus Humberto Guerrero Jimenez and stole 10 million pesos ($4,147) from him. At the same site, the paramilitaries abducted and killed an unidentified young campesino who lived in Cartagenita.

Early on Dec. 25, the paramilitaries entered the village of Santa Ines, in El Carmen municipality, where they forced the community’s residents to gather before separating seven campesinos from the group and killing them. Four of the victims were identified as Leonel Bayona Cabrales, Samuel Perez Abril, Custodio Melo and William Montano. The paramilitaries also abducted, tortured and freed two other campesinos, and robbed the village residents of 15 head of cattle, money and other possessions.

Also on Dec. 25, the paramilitaries abducted two unidentified men near the border of Ocana and Convencion municipalities, and murdered them in the hamlet of Culebritas in Convencion. Some 1,000 residents of the villages of Cartagenita, Miraflores and La Trinidad in Convencion municipality have fled their homes in terror and are hiding in rural areas, unable to reach larger towns because of the paramilitary siege. They are running out of food and have no access to medical attention.

The paramilitaries remain in the area, divided into two groups: one stationed in the hamlet of Santa Maria, between Cartagenita and Miraflores in Convencion municipality, 12 kilometers from the base of the army’s Energy Road Plan Battalion #10; the other in the hamlet of Planadas, in El Carmen municipality. The residents of La Trinidad, Miraflores and Cartagenita had previously been displaced by paramilitary violence at the hands of the AUC’s "Catatumbo Bloc"–which was officially demobilized this past Dec. 10–and had returned to their homes on May 20, 2003 after being promised that the government would provide them with security.

Minga, a Colombian human rights group, is asking the government to protect the civilian population, neutralize the paramilitaries responsible for the violence, provide emergency humanitarian assistance to displaced communities and assist their safe return, and open criminal investigations into the killings. In addition, Minga wants Sergio Caramagna, head of the Organization of American States (OAS) accompaniment mission which is overseeing the negotiations with the paramilitaries, to verify these violations of the ceasefire. (Minga, Dec. 29, via Prensa Rural)

On the night of Dec. 31, at least 17 campesinos were shot to death in the rural community of Puerto San Salvador, Tame municipality, in the eastern Colombian department of Arauca. Another three campesinos were wounded in the attack. The victims had gathered in a public spot to celebrate New Year’s Eve. Tame mayor Alfredo Guzman said the victims included six women, seven men and four children. One of those injured in the attack said the perpetrators had accused the victims of being paramilitary supporters. That testimony led local authorities to blame the FARC for the massacre, though Arauca police commander Col. Rodrigo Palacio told the press that the police and military are still trying to determine who was responsible. (EFE, AFP, Jan. 1)

From Weekly News Update on the Americas, Jan. 2

ARAUCA: ARMY KILLS GIRL

At 3 AM on Nov. 28, the Colombian army’s Mobile Brigade 5 entered the village of El Botalon in Tame municipality, Arauca department. The uniformed troops were accompanied by individuals out of uniform who have been recognized as participating in past paramilitary actions. Later in the morning, as fighting broke out between troops and insurgents in the area, the soldiers set up a sniper post and fired at a busy intersection, badly wounding Karly Johana Suarez Torres, who was either nine or 11 years old. Wounded by a bullet to the head, Suarez died en route to a hospital in the city of Arauca. The army surrounded El Botalon, preventing any of the residents from leaving and blocking food and supplies from entering. (Humanidad Vigente, Comite Regional de Derechos Humanos Joel Sierra, Nov. 29, via Colombia Indymedia)

From Weekly News Update on the Americas, Dec. 19

BOGOTA: CAMPESINOS PROTEST TRADE PACT

On Nov. 29, Colombian campesinos marched in Bogota with their cows, oxen and tractors to protest a planned free trade treaty (TLC) between the US and three Andean nations. The protest was held a day before the sixth round of trade talks was set to begin in the US city of Tucson, AZ, between representatives of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and the US. The talks were scheduled to close on Dec. 4. The previous round of talks was held Oct. 25-29 in Guayaquil, Ecuador. The four governments have been discussing the trade pact since last May, and hope to sign it by February 2005, despite opposition in all four countries. (Caracol Noticias, AP, Nov. 29) The talks come on the heels of a four-hour visit to Colombia on Nov. 22 by US president George W. Bush. Colombian president Alvaro Uribe Velez used the visit to press Bush for a "fair trade accord" with special consideration for the Colombian agricultural sector and more flexibility on intellectual property rights; Bush apparently did not respond to the request. (Red Colombiana de Accion frente al Libre Comercio y el ALCA [RECALCA], Nov. 29)

From Weekly News Update on the Americas, Dec. 5

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Reprinted by WORLD WAR 4 REPORT, Jan. 17, 2005
Reprinting permissible with attribution

WW4Report.com

CENTRAL AMERICA: ANTI-CAFTA PROTESTS, GANG TERROR

by Weekly News Update on the Americas

EL SALVADOR: MORE ANTI-CAFTA PROTESTS

On Dec. 22, thousands of Salvadorans blocked main highways in 10 of the country’s 14 departments to protest the Legislative Assembly’s Dec. 17 vote which ratified the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). The protests were called by the Grassroots Social Bloc (BPS) of El Salvador, a coalition of campesino, union, community, environmental, youth, religious, teachers’ and veterans’ groups. A day earlier, Dec. 21, parallel actions protesting the CAFTA ratification were held at Salvadoran consulates and embassies around the world. (Servicio Informativo Ecumenico y Popular [SIEP], Dec. 21, 22)

The Dec. 22 blockades in El Salvador began simultaneously at 9 AM and ended around midday. Police said demonstrators blocked traffic at nine sites around the country, and that there were no confrontations or arrests. Protesters say the legislature’s passage of CAFTA was unconstitutional, since treaties cannot be approved by a simple majority. (La Prensa Grafica, San Salvador, Dec. 23)

BPS campesino leader Guadalupe Erazo blasted governance minister Rene Figueroa and Enrique Viera Altamirano, director of the Diario de Hoy newspaper; he said they believe that "by waging a publicity campaign against our popular organizations they’re going to demobilize us, but they’re wrong, we’re here in the streets because there is hunger, there is repression, and this generates resistance."

In a televised interview on Dec. 21, Viera accused the Lutheran Church and other grassroots sectors supporting the anti-CAFTA protests of being instruments of the leftist Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation (FMLN). Lutheran pastor Rev. Roberto Pineda responded that "in the past such accusations have served as an excuse for death squad actions; in the past repressive military officers faced trial, but people like Viera Altamirano were never tried, [though] from his pages he sentenced to death thousands of Salvadorans, including Msgr. [Oscar] Romero [archbishop of San Salvador, murdered by death squads on March 24, 1980]."

BPS community leader Gloria Rivas condemned "the military deployment carried out by the PNC [National Civilian Police] around the Hotel Presidente, which is a display of unnecessary and repressive force, and [President Antonio] Saca’s statements that he’s going to use force against us–let him do it and let him face the consequences of unleashing a new civil war in our country." (SIEP, Dec. 21, 22)

From Weekly News Update on the Americas, Dec. 26

HONDURAS: PROTESTS DELAY TRADE PACT?

Hundreds of members of the Coordinating Committee of Popular Resistance demonstrated in Tegucigalpa on Dec. 27, 28 and 29 to demand that the Honduran legislature not ratify the CAFTA, which is referred to in Central America as the Free Trade Treaty (TLC). The legislature was discussing budget issues and did not end up debating the TLC. "At least we have won a delay in the approval of the TLC, but the struggle continues; we are in permanent struggle and we aren’t going to give in as long as the treaty is still on the [agenda] of the legislative power," said Doris Gutierrez, a deputy for the Democratic Unification party, which participated in the protests. Legislative sources say the TLC will be debated in February 2005. (Tiempo, Honduras, Dec. 30)

From Weekly News Update on the Americas, Dec. 2

HONDURAS: 28 KILLED IN BUS ATTACK

On the evening of Dec. 23, in the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula, several heavily armed individuals opened fire at a public bus, then boarded the bus and shot the passengers at close range. At least 16 people died at the scene, and by Dec. 26, the death toll had reached 28–including seven children–with another 17 people wounded. Nearly all the dead were hit by between three and five bullets each, in the head, face and upper body. The assailants used AK-47 and M-16 semi-automatic rifles, and apparently a handgun.

Police arrested a suspect, an alleged member of the Mara Salvatrucha gang, armed with a pistol and traveling nearby in a vehicle where police found AK-47 and M-16 ammunition. As of Dec. 26, a total of three suspects had been arrested. Authorities suggest the attack was carried out by the Mara Salvatrucha gang, motivated by anger at the government’s anti-gang measures and by competition with another major gang, "La 18." (Tiempo, Dec. 24; Diario Hoy, La Plata, Argentina, Dec. 26; La Republica, Lima, Dec, 26)

Before fleeing the scene of the attack, the assailants left a message, written on pieces of red poster-board, resting on the hood of the bus, held in place by two rocks. The lengthy, slang-filled message railed against Congress president Porfirio Lobo Sosa, referred to as a "mafioso drug trafficker"; Security Minister Oscar Alvarez, a "homosexual"; and President Ricardo Maduro, who "steps in shit." The message threatened to kill anyone who supports Lobo, and to shoot at any vehicle which bears Lobo’s campaign posters or insignias, "as with this bus." Lobo is seeking the candidacy of the ruling National Party for the November 2005 presidential elections. The message also criticized Alvarez’s failed security measures, asking him: "Where are the chepos [police agents] you promised the people [you would put] on every bus?"

The message warned that "for those who don’t believe in us there are going to be more deaths before the end of the year, let’s see if Pepe [Lobo] or Oscar Alvarez can prevent all these massacres that are coming; now Pepe Lobo is going to come out again asking for the death penalty but who is going to be sentenced if he’s the guilty one. Honduran people that’s all for now, and eat tamales because you could be the next victims." The sign’s message, with spelling errors and lacking in punctuation, was reproduced–apparently verbatim –in the daily Tiempo newspaper, though no news outlet seemed to carry photographs of it.

The message was signed by the "Movimiento Popular de Liberacion Sinchonero," a misspelling of the Cinchonero Popular Liberation Movement, a leftist rebel group which has long been inactive. (Tiempo, Dec. 24) [The Cinchoneros’ last known armed action was a bomb attack on Apr. 18, 1991, against the headquarters of the National Party in San Pedro Sula, which caused damages but no injuries. The Cinchoneros were also blamed for the kidnapping in April 1994 of Jose Adolfo Alvarado Lara, a National Party deputy from Copan, who was freed unharmed (or rescued) within two days. Alvarado remains a deputy in Copan and is running for reelection in 2005.–WNU]

On Dec. 24, President Maduro said he did not believe the Cinchoneros were responsible for the bus attack. Alvarez also dismissed as "unlikely" that the Cinchoneros were to blame, since "those things remained in the past." (EFE, Dec. 12)

Late on Dec. 22 in San Pedro Sula, three men wearing police uniforms shot to death former National Party deputy Ricardo Antonio Pena in his home. Pena was a deputy for Ocotepeque department from 1998 to 2002; he was arrested in Panama in 2003 on heroin trafficking charges but escaped from prison and was sought by Interpol. (La Prensa, Panama, Dec. 24; EFE, Dec. 23)

From Weekly News Update on the Americas, Dec. 26

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Reprinted by WORLD WAR 4 REPORT, Jan. 17, 2005
Reprinting permissible with attribution

WW4Report.com

BOLIVIA: NEW “WATER WAR,” VIOLENT LAND CONFLICTS

by Weekly News Update on the Americas

EL ALTO: PROTESTS OUST WATER COMPANY

On Jan. 10, members of more than 600 neighborhood organizations in the Bolivian city of El Alto mobilized in an open-ended peaceful civic strike to press a series of demands, including cancellation of the city’s water and sewer contract with the private consortium Aguas del Illimani. The Federation of Neighborhood Boards (FEJUVE), which organized the strike, says the water company charges rates that put water and sewer service out of reach for a majority of El Alto residents. The protesters were also demanding that the government reverse its Decree 27959 of Dec. 30, which instituted price increases of 10% for gasoline and 23% for diesel, causing the cost of basic goods to skyrocket.

The water and sewer system of El Alto and neighboring La Paz was privatized to Aguas del Illimani in July 1997 when the World Bank made water privatization a condition of a loan to the Bolivian government. The Aguas del Illimani consortium is owned jointly by the French water giant Suez (formerly Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux) and a set of minority shareholders which include an arm of the World Bank. Suez’s water and wastewater business, which is run through its subsidiary Ondeo, is the second largest in the world. El Alto residents say that by pegging rates to the dollar, the company raised water prices by 35%. A water and sewer hookup for a single household now costs over $445, while many Bolivians earn about $2.50 a day. The company has also failed to expand water service to the outlying areas of the municipality, residents complain. The latest population census showed that 52% of El Alto residents lack basic water and sewer services.

FEJUVE called the strike for Jan. 10 after five months of protests and negotiations failed to win a solution to El Alto’s water crisis. On Jan. 9, FEJUVE rejected a Jan. 6 government decree–a last-ditch effort to halt the strike–which called for “review” of the contract with Aguas del Illimani, de-dollarization of the company’s rates and expansion of its service. “The ‘Bolivianization’ of the rates is a promise from November of last year,” complained FEJUVE president Abel Mamani Marca. “Now they want to talk about expansion of the service, but they don’t say anything about non-fulfillment of the contract terms or of irregularities in the bidding for the concession. Aguas del Illimani has not complied, they have to go,” he said.

Later on Jan. 9, President Carlos Mesa Gisbert made a national television address in an attempt to stem the mobilizations in El Alto and a 48-hour civic strike planned for Jan. 11-12 in Santa Cruz department against the fuel price increase. Mesa urged Bolivians not to participate in strikes or protests, and threatened to resign if violence breaks out. He justified the fuel price increase by arguing that cheaper subsidized Bolivian fuel was being smuggled into neighboring countries, causing a national shortage.

On Jan. 10, thousands of El Alto residents hit the streets, setting up road blockades which cut off traffic in and out of La Paz, and shutting down El Alto’s international airport, which serves as the main airport for the capital. At the same time, in the city of Cochabamba, factory workers, students, campesinos, retirees, homemakers, unemployed workers and others joined in a march organized by the Departmental Labor Federation (COD) against the fuel price increase and to protest Mesa’s Jan. 9 speech, while truckers held a separate march against the fuel hike. The national Bolivian Workers Federation (COB) also coordinated marches on Jan. 10 in La Paz and Potosi.

Later on Jan. 10, the government tried to convince El Alto residents to halt their strike by announcing a new decree, 29745, which would institute a series of economic measures to encourage investment in El Alto. The decree would suspend the charging of utility taxes for 10 years and of the value-added tax and another tariff for two years in the municipality.

On Jan. 11, residents of the outlying El Alto neighborhoods of Ballivian and Alto Lima–which lack water and sewer hookups–seized several Aguas de Illimani facilities, including a water tank. That same day, Mesa sent FEJUVE a letter, saying he was beginning “the necessary actions for the termination of the concession contract” with Aguas del Illimani. The heads of the neighborhood associations met at FEJUVE headquarters to discuss the letter; after three hours, they decided to continue their strike. They gave Mesa’s government 24 hours to promulgate a decree immediately cancelling the contract with the water company; otherwise, protesters would seize the company’s facilities. Shortly afterwards, a government official called Mamani to tell him the decree would be ready the next morning.

On the morning of Jan. 12, as El Alto remained paralyzed and the civic strike in Santa Cruz entered its second day, the government gave FEJUVE an unsigned decree, prompting the neighborhood associations to convene another assembly. FEJUVE rejected the new decree, saying it needed to make clear that Aguas del Illimani would leave Bolivia “immediately.” After 6 PM, the government presented Supreme Decree 27293–already promulgated–stating that the government would take the “necessary actions” to terminate the contract “immediately” and to guarantee water and sewer service for El Alto and La Paz. This time, after each neighborhood association had a chance to discuss the document with its members, FEJUVE called an end to the strike–but warned that its members would remain on alert to make sure the company does not remove any equipment from its facilities, and would continue pressing other demands. “Electropaz is next,” activists warned, referring to the electricity company for El Alto and La Paz, operated by the Spanish transnational Iberdrola.

On Jan. 13, El Alto residents had already planned to march into La Paz; some 20,000 participated in what became a victory march, celebrating the cancellation of the contract with Aguas del Illimani. (La Jornada, Mexico, Jan. 13; Los Tiempos, Cochabamba, Jan. 10-3; Pacific News Service, Dec. 17; Servicio Informativo “Alai-amlatina,” Jan. 10; La Prensa, La Paz, Jan. 7, 9)

The former Municipal Autonomous Drinking Water and Sewer Service (SAMAPA) will be revived to take over water and sewer service in La Paz and El Alto for a three-month period while a new entity is established. FEJUVE is working on proposals for the new company, possibly a cooperative or with partial worker control. “We have two proposals, but the objective is that it will be a company with majority citizen participation and with minimal municipal and state participation,” said Mamani. Meanwhile, the Regional Workers Federation (COR) of El Alto plans a march on Jan. 17 to La Paz to demand repeal of the fuel price hike and passage of a new gas law that includes nationalization. (Bolpress, Jan. 16)

The Jan. 11-12 civic strike in Santa Cruz department was called by the Santa Cruz Civic Committee, which is dominated by regional agribusiness interests; the Santa Cruz Departmental Labor Federation (COD) also backed the protest, against the instructions of its national affiliate, the COB. Another 13 campesino and indigenous organizations in Santa Cruz department rejected the strike, accusing large-scale farmers of using it to try to destabilize the country’s democratic system. The Santa Cruz FEJUVE backed the civic strike, and FEJUVE members and factory workers began an open-ended hunger strike on Jan. 13, which the Civic Committee said it would join beginning on Jan. 17 unless the government reverses the fuel hike. Some sectors in Santa Cruz and other cities were also protesting public transport fare hikes instituted by drivers in response to the fuel increase.

On Jan. 11, in an unsuccessful attempt to halt the Santa Cruz strike, Mesa issued six new decrees supposedly designed to support agriculture, stimulate the economy and generate jobs. At least one of the decrees seems to reduce tariffs on imports; others extend rural debt forgiveness for small farmers and facilitate the importing and distribution of farm machinery. (LT, Jan. 11, 12, 14; LP, Jan. 9)

Bolivian campesinos are planning to mobilize against the government starting on Jan. 17. Campesino sectors led by Felipe Quispe Huanca are planning a national hunger strike to demand that Mesa step down, and sectors led by Roman Loayza plan to join indigenous people and colonists in blocking roads to demand reversal of the fuel hike or the calling of early elections. (Servicio Informativo “Alai-amlatina,” Jan. 13) Sectors of the Only Union Confederation of Bolivian Campesino Workers (CSUTCB) led by Quispe have also threatened to seize military and police installations. (LJ, Jan. 13) Cocaleros in Los Yungas region of La Paz department are planning to block highways to protest construction of an anti-drug police base in the region. The COB, Quispe’s sectors of the CSUTCB, the Coca Producers Association (ADEPCOCA) and the Committee to Defend Coca Leaf of Traditional Origin signed a “revolutionary unity pact” on Jan. 10 in which they agreed to coordinate protest actions. Campesinos in Tarija, Oruro and Chuquisaca departments are not expected to participate in the national highway blockades because they don’t recognize Quispe’s leadership. (Bolpress, Jan. 16)

The “water war” that ended the Aguas del Illimani contract brought comparisons to a successful April 2000 revolt in Cochabamba that forced the cancellation of a water contract with a consortium led by the Bechtel corporation. Bechtel and its shareholders in the Aguas de Tunari consortium later filed a $25 million legal action against Bolivia in a secretive trade court operated by the World Bank. This past December, Deputy Minister of Basic Services Jose Barragan revealed that Bechtel now wants to drop the claim in exchange for a token payment equal to $0.30. According to Barragan, the resolution is being held up by another Aguas de Tunari partner, the Abengoa corporation of Spain. (PNS, Dec. 17)

From Weekly News Update on the Americas, Jan. 16

SANTA CRUZ: ONE DEAD IN LAND CLASH

On Dec. 20, Bolivian police surrounding the Paila estate in San Julian municipality, Santa Cruz department, fired their weapons at landless campesinos who were trying to reoccupy the site. The 150 landless families had been evicted from the estate the previous week after living there for two years. The eviction came after the Eastern Agricultural Chamber (CAO), a rural business group, began pressing the government to get tough on squatters in the region.

Landless resident Medrin Colque Mollo was killed by a bullet to the chest, 20 others were injured (including one wounded by gunfire) and two disappeared. Eight police agents were also injured, one by gunfire. Campesinos say it was the police commander who killed Colque. Some 115 police agents had been stationed at the property for a week when the conflict occurred; after the clash, police commander Freddy Soruco sent in another 120 agents. The landless residents insist they will not give up their struggle to obtain 50 hectares of productive land per family. (Los Tiempos, Cochabamba, Dec. 21-2; Bolpress, Dec. 25)

Authorities from La Paz arrived on Dec. 22 to begin talks with the landless residents at Paila. The same day, Presidency Minister Jose Galindo Nedder said the government planned to distribute 30,000 hectares of land starting in January to landless campesinos in the area of San Julian. The Bolivian Movement of Landless Rural Workers (MST) said it doubted the government’s offer and was urging its members to “take up arms” to defend themselves against forced evictions. (LT, Dec. 23)

From Weekly News Update on the Americas, Dec. 26

STATE TERROR AGAINST INDIGENOUS PEOPLES IN ETHIOPIA–ANOTHER SECRET WAR FOR OIL?

by keith harmon snow

The East African nation of Ethiopia is the latest US Terror War ally to
turn its guns on indigenous peoples in a zone coveted by corporate
interests for its natural resources. Four months after armed forces of the
ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Defense Front (EPRDF) and settlers
from the Ethiopian highlands initiated a campaign of massacres, repression
and mass rape deliberately targeting the Anuak minority of Ethiopia’s
southwest, atrocities and killings continue–and the situation remains in
whiteout by the Western media.

The most recent attack was on March 27, when EPRDF troops entered villages
in Jor district, killing over 100 residents, including women and children.
Many of the survivors were forcibly removed by the soldiers, with rights
observers claiming village women are being held as sexual slaves.

Based on field investigations conducted in January, two US-based
organizations–Genocide Watch and Survivor’s Rights International–jointly
released a report on Feb. 22, providing substantial evidence that EPRDF
soldiers and "Highlander" militias in southwestern Ethiopia targeted Anuak
civilians. The "Highlanders" are of neither the agriculturalist Anuak nor
the cattle-herding Nuer, the two indigenous peoples of the region, but
predominantly Tigray and Amhara people resettled into Anuak territory since
1974.

The current conflict was sparked by the killing of eight U.N. and Ethiopian
government officials whose van was ambushed on Dec. 13, 2003, in the
Gambella district of southwestern Ethiopia. While there is no evidence
attesting to the ethnicity of the unidentified assailants, the incident
provided the pretext for the ongoing pogrom against the Anuak.

In the aftermath of the attack, EPRDF soldiers using automatic weapons and
hand grenades targeted Anuak villages, summarily executing civilians,
burning dwellings (sometimes with people inside), and looting property.
Some 424 Anuak people were reportedly killed, with over 200 more wounded
and some 85 unaccounted for.

Mass rape continues in the region, perpetrated by EPRDF soldiers and
Highlander settlers, often at gunpoint. Anuak schools were reportedly
emptied of schoolgirls who were gang-raped in nearby huts or in the bush.
With Anuak males killed, arrested or displaced, the vulnerability of women
and girls has been grossly exploited. Reports from non-Anuak police
officials in Gambella indicate an average of up to seven rapes per day.

Some resistance has been reported–both by guerillas of the Anuak Gambella
People’s Liberation Force (GPLF), and, more spontaneously, by targetted
Anuak civilians. According to one interview, Anuak men who resisted
attacks by soldiers in Pinyudo town on Dec. 13 or 14 were able to overcome
their attackers and capture automatic weapons.

Recent reports indicate that pitched battles occurred in Dimma district
when Anuak men retaliated for the unprovoked torture-killing of a member of
the Anuak community by EPRDF soldiers. Retaliatory attacks and
counter-attacks from Jan. 28 to Feb. 3 reportedly claimed the lives of
scores of EPRDF soldiers in Dimma. After Jan. 30, EPRDF reinforcements
arrived in Dimma with troops, artillery and tanks. Troops reportedly
massacred non-combatant Dinka and Nuer refugees from a nearby camp for
Sudanese refugees.

First-person reports from the Gambella region describe Anuak prisoners
subjected to forced labor under armed guard by EPRDF captors. Significant
numbers of Anuaks remain unaccounted for; "disappearances" of Anuak leaders
have become frequent. There are unverified reports that Ethiopia’s central
government has dispatched intelligence operatives to neighboring countries
to assassinate exiled Anuak leaders. Reports of helicopters being used to
monitor or hunt down Anuak refugees have also been received.

Reports compiled by Genocide Watch/Survivors Rights International (GW/SRI)
cited eyewitness accounts of eleven uniformed EPRDF soldiers working under
cover of night on Feb. 1 to exhume bodies from a mass grave in Gambella.
EPRDF soldiers reportedly worked with masks and gloves to dig up corpses
for incineration in order to destroy evidence of the December massacres.

Now refugees are fleeing from Ethiopia into Sudan. As of January 23, 2004,
the Sudan Relief and Rehabilitation Committee, affiliated with the rebel
Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), in Pochalla, Sudan, was
supporting international relief efforts for over 5,297 refugees fleeing the
violence. Refugees continue to flee southwestern Ethiopia at this writing.

Numerous assailants have been identified, including government officials,
soldiers and civilians. There are accusations that lists of targeted
individuals were drawn up with the assistance of Omot Obang Olom, an Anuak
government official cited by several interviewees for his involvement.
Massacres were reportedly ordered by the commander of the Ethiopian army in
Gambella, Nagu Beyene, with the authorization of Gebrehab Barnabas,
Regional Affairs minister of the Ethiopian government.

Numerous sources report that there have been regular massacres of Anuak
since 1980. Cultural Survival has reported on discrimination against the
Anuaks in six reports published in the journal Cultural Survival Quarterly
beginning in 1981. (See e.g.: "Oil Development In Ethiopia: A Threat to
the Anuak of Gambella," Issue 25.3, 2001).

Interviews with local residents consistently reveal that Anuak have been
treated as third-class citizens, denied basic educational opportunities
afforded to other ethnicities, and have been increasingly excluded and
displaced from positions in government and civil society over the past
decade. As one witness testified: "There is an unwritten law of
discrimination against Anuaks."

U.S. COMPLICIT IN ETHNIC CLEANING

The U.S. government was informed about unfolding violence in the Gambella
region as early as December 16, 2003, through communications to Secretary
of State Colin Powell, the Overseas Citizens Division, the U.S. Embassy in
Ethiopia, and other U.S. State Department agencies.

Responding to the GW/SRI report, the U.S. issued a press release on Feb. 22
that urged an end to violence between ethnic Anuaks and the military in the
Gambella region. The U.S. also called "upon the Government of Ethiopia to
conduct transparent, independent inquiries, and particularly into
allegations that members of the Ethiopian military committed acts of
violence against civilians in Gambella region."

On March 1, 2004, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Meles Zenawi issued a statement
denying EPRDF involvement in the violence, claiming: "the Ethiopian Defense
Forces acted only to maintain peace and stability, in light of the weakened
condition of the regional police forces during the incidents."

Ethiopia is considered an essential partner of the U.S. in its War on
Terrorism. In 2003, the U.S. Army’s 10th Mountain Division (Special
Operations Forces) completed a three-month program to train an Ethiopian
army division in counter-terrorism tactics. Operations are coordinated
through the Combined Joint Task Forces-Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA) base in
Djibouti.

In January 2004, Special Operations soldiers from the 3rd U.S. Infantry
Regiment replaced the 10th Mountain Division forces at a new base
established Hurso Training Camp, northwest of Dire Dawa near the border
with Somalia., to be used for launching local joint missions in
"counter-terrorism" with the Ethiopian military. Soldiers will continue to
operate missions out of Hurso for several months from a new forward base
named "Camp United."

>From April 12-25, 2003, under the U.S. State Department-sponsored Africa
Contingency Operations Training and Assistance program, CJTF-HOA provided
instruction to nearly 900 Ethiopian soldiers at a base in Legedadi.
CJTF-HOA forces from the U.S Army’s 478th Civil Affairs Battalion also
operated in Ethiopia in 2003 in and around Dire Dawa, Galadi and Dolo Odo,
among other areas.

The 1,800-member CJTF, comprised of personnel from all branches of the U.S.
armed forces, civilian representatives and coalition liaison officers, was
formed to oversee operations in the Horn of Africa for U.S. Central Command
in support of the global War on Terrorism. For its "counter-terrorism"
mission, CJTF-HOA defines the Horn of Africa region as the airspace, land
areas and coastal waters of Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Sudan, Eritrea,
Djibouti and Yemen.

The Central Intelligence Agency is also very active on the entire Horn of
Africa and operates two Predator unmanned aerospace vehicles (UAVs) armed
with Hellfire missiles out of Djibouti.

>From 1995-2000, the U.S. provided some $1,835,000 in International Military
and Education Training (IMET) deliveries to Ethiopia. Some 115 Ethiopian
military officers were trained under the IMET program from 1991-2001.
Approximately 4,000 Ethiopian soldiers have participated in IMET since
1950.

ANUAK PEOPLE IN WAY OF OIL DEVELOPMENT

The role of oil in the conflict in neighboring southern Sudan has been
well-reported. Multinational corporations now have set their sights on the
natural resources of Ethiopia’s Gambella region as well. Central Ethiopian
authorities thus have powerful economic incentives to seek control of these
resources. Petroleum, water, tungsten, platinum and gold are the principal
resources in the Gambella region that are of international interest.
The Anuak situation has grown markedly worse since oil was discovered under
Anuak lands by the Gambella Petroleum Corp, a subsidiary of Pinewood
Resources Ltd. of Canada, which signed a concession agreement with the
Ethiopian government in 2001. In May 2001, however, Pinewood announced that
it had relinquished all rights to the Gambella oil concession. Pinewood now
says it has pulled out of Ethiopia. The concessions may have been sold.
On June 13, 2003, Malaysia’s state-owned oil company Petronas announced the
signing of an exclusive 25-year exploration and production sharing
agreement with the EPRDF government to exploit the Ogaden Basin in
Ethiopia’s east and the "Gambella Block"–a 15,356 sq km concession. On
Feb. 17, 2004, the Ethiopian Minister of Mines announced that the Malaysian
company would launch a natural gas exploration project in the Gambella
region. There are reports that the China National Petroleum Corporation may
have also signed contracts with the EPRDF for a stake in Gambella’s oil.
Petronas and the China National Petroleum Corporation are currently
operating in Sudan, where, according to a 2003 report by Human Rights
Watch, "Sudan: Oil and Human Rights," the two Asian oil giants have
allegedly provided cover for their respective governments to ship arms and
military equipment to Sudan in exchange for oil concessions granted by
Khartoum.
In 2000, the Texas-based Sicor Inc. signed a $1.4 billion dollar deal with
Ethiopia for the "Gazoil" joint venture exploiting oil and gas in the
southeast Ogaden Basin.

Hunt Oil Company of Dallas is also involved in the Ogaden Basin through
their subsidiary Ethiopia Hunt Oil Company. Hunt Oil’s chairman of the
board and CEO Ray L. Hunt is a director of Halliburton Company.

U.S. Cal Tech International Corp is also reportedly negotiating a joint
venture with the China National Petroleum Corp. to operate in the same
regions.
Petronas operates in Sudan in partnership with the Canadian-Swedish Lundin
Group. Swedish financier Adolph Lundin, who oversees Lundin Group is a
long-time associate of George H.W. Bush. African Confidential reported in
1997 that the former president telephoned then-dictator Mobutu Sese Seko of
Zaire (today Democratic Republic of Congo) on behalf of Lundin after Mobutu
had threatened to terminate a mining contract.
Anuak artesanal miners in Gambella district mine gold; thus the interests
of multinational gold corporations may be of further relevance in
explaining the terror campaign against the Anuaks. U.S.-based Canyon
Resources has gold operations in southern Ethiopia.

——————-

Anuak children at the Pochalla refugee site in south Sudan.

A tank in SPLA held south Sudan, near the Pochalla refugee site.

Anuak refugees in Pochalla Sudan burtchering wild antelope to compensate for the absence of food.

Anuak refugees in Pochalla Sudan must compete for scarce resources with
the local Sudanese population that has been disenfranchised by war for
decades.

An Anuak refugee in Pochalla, Sudan; Anuak women and girls continue to
be targeted by the campaign of mass rape being perpetrated by Ethiopia
soldiers.

The full report can be seen at www.genocidewatch.org and
www.survivorsrightsinternational.org .
See more of keith harmon snow’s journalism and photography at:
www.allthingspass.com/

Special to WORLD WAR 3 REPORT, April 9, 2004
Reprinting permissible with attribution

WW3Report.com

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MESSAGE TO OUR READERS

Dear WW4 REPORT Readers:

This marks a third year of bringing you cutting-edge on-the-scene stories from the Terror War fronts, as well as reviews, digests and analysis–providing news and perspectives available nowhere else.

In 2004, our contributor keith harmon snow brought you first-hand accounts from the forgotten war zones of Africa. In a major exclusive (later reprinted by Z Magazine), he uncovered the genocide being carried out against the Anuak indigenous people in Ethiopia to clear their lands and crush resistance to oil operations. In the December issue, he files a gripping report from Congo, visiting remote areas to document the still officially-denied invasion of the resource-rich African giant by US-backed Rwandan forces.

Again this year, our contributing editor David Bloom has traveled to the occupied West Bank, bringing back the most in-depth reportage anywhere on the mechanics of Israeli land theft from Palestinian farming communities under the guise of the "security fence"–or "apartheid wall." His exclusive reports from the besieged Palestinian village of Jayyous have been picked up by The Nation and Electronic Intifada.

Following my controversial essay in 2003 decrying the anti-war movement’s failure to seek leadership from progressive Iraqis who oppose both the US occupation and the jihadi armed resistance, I pledged that I would find such dissident voices. This year, I made good on that pledge, providing comprehensive interviews with Yanar Mohammed and Khayal Ibrahim of the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq, Issam Shukri of the Union of the Unemployed in Iraq, and Samir Noory of the Worker Communist Party of Iraq. These critical, principled voices are still heard nearly nowhere else–alas.

You’ve also received:

*Wynde Priddy’s ongoing series on the Darfur genocide and the politics of oil, terror and interventionism in Africa’s Sahel.

*Nirit Ben-Ari’s dissection of the March coup d’etat which ousted Jean Bertrand-Aristide in Haiti, picked up by Alternet.

*Raven Healing’s documentation of grave rights abuses in Russia’s counter-insurgency war in Chechnya.

*Sarah Ferguson’s analyses of the state of the anti-war movement.

*Hakim Bey on radical Sufism and the historical roots of the new Jihad.

*WBAI radio personality Robert Knight on George Bush’s politicization of NASA and announced drive to reach Mars.

*My own monthly updates on Colombia, following up on my first-hand reportage from the war-torn country last year.

*And, in the December issue, Carmelo Ruiz Marrero’s report on the biotechnology industry’s agenda for Iraqi agriculture under US occupation.

We are doing what we are doing because we fill a vital niche. We seek to expose corporate and imperialist agendas, but also to seek out local contexts–political, ethnic and ecological–for the myriad wars of the new global conflict. We endeavor to find anti-militarist, pro-autonomy voices we can loan solidarity to, especially those of land-rooted indigenous peoples. We are committed to covering the forgotten wars outside the media spotlight–whether in the Colombian Amazon or the tribal lands of northeast India. Above all, we are committed to real journalism–not the mere opinion-spewing so much in vogue in left media these days.

Recognizing that the Cold War was in fact World War 3, we are changing our name with the first edition of 2005 to WORLD WAR 4 REPORT–and hope to launch our first print edition shortly thereafter, producing it as a quarterly "best-of" with national distribution. We need to expand in 2005 to reach the point where we can pay our writers, have an ongoing visible presence in national bookstores, and become truly sustainable.

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CONSCIENCE UNDER OCCUPATION

by Matt Vogel

REFUSENIK!: Israel’s Soldiers of Conscience
Compiled and edited by Peretz Kidron
Zed Books, Ltd., London, 2004

General, your tank is a powerful vehicle
It tramples the forest, it crushes a hundred men,
But it has one flaw:
It requires a driver.

General, your bomber is strong.
It flies faster than the storm, it loads more than an elephant.
But it has one flaw:
It requires a mechanic.

General, man is very useful.
He knows how to fly, he knows how to murder.
But he has one flaw:
He knows how to think.
–Bertolt Brecht

This poem serves as something of an unofficial credo of the Refusenik movement.

Since the 1967 war, during which the Israeli government invaded Gaza and the West Bank, giving the world the phrase "the Occupied Territories," over 1,000 Israeli soldiers have refused orders that would send them there, and hundreds more have said they would, if so ordered, refuse as well. Fundamentally, these soldiers do not support the continued occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, and feel that they cannot, in good conscience, take part. In this short book are stories from many of these "refuseniks," as they have been dubbed, stretching from the early 1970s to today. There are forty-three statements, separated into three historical categories: those from the period following the 1967 war, including the invasion of Lebanon in 1982; from the first intifada, which began in 1987; and from the second intifada, which began in September 2000 and lasts to this day.

Here we read soldiers telling what happened to them, and why they chose the course of action they did, in stories, poems, letters to the editors of various newspapers, correspondence from prison, letters to parents, and public speeches. The editor, Peretz Kidron, himself a refusenik, tells the story of Yuval, an Israeli soldier who refused to serve in a prison housing Palestinian detainees, and Imad, a jailed Palestinian scholar, and how they came to be close friends. In the midst of these stories and statements is a short essay on "The Philosophy of Selective Refusal," and its place in the anti-militarist movement. There is also a short history and description of the work of Yesh Gvul (Hebrew for "There is a limit"–meaning, "there is a limit to what an army can ask of its conscripts"), an organization dedicated to the material and moral support of refuseniks and their families. Altogether, this provides a fascinating portrait of the refusenik movement.

The government of Israel mandates military service for all youth, and the vast majority of the refuseniks come from the ranks of those who are fulfilling this requirement–the reservists. Few are total pacifists–most simply refuse to engage in an assignment they find morally objectionable. This is what is meant by "selective refusal"–rather than an outright refusal of military service, soldiers selectively refuse specific orders. Yesh Gvul advises people to send advance notice of their intentions to their commanders, and to show up and receive their orders, so as to avoid a court-martial for being AWOL. It is upon receiving actual orders that people are advised to refuse.

The response of the Israel Defense Force (IDF), the Israeli government’s military, is, in most cases, not to punish the refuseniks, but to simply give them new orders that they will not refuse. Several hundred, however, have served prison terms for their refusal. Over 200 refuseniks have served prison terms just since the beginning of the second intifada. Until recently, the IDF opted not to court-martial the refuseniks, instead allowing the soldier’s immediate commander to try the soldier–usually resulting in a relatively short prison sentence of a few weeks.

However, in 2002, 62 high school students sent a letter to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon stating that they would refuse to be inducted into the IDF for their mandatory service. Eventually, over three-hundred students signed on to the letter. When many of them kept their promise and refused induction, the government, after a series of disciplinary jailings, decided to court-martial several of them. Peretz Kidron writes that the IDF had been reluctant to court-martial earlier because of a fear of courts ruling on the legality of the IDF’s actions in the West Bank and Gaza. He suggests that the government was so threatened by this total refusal of military service that it went ahead with the court-martials despite this risk, in a bid to quash the movement.

Most powerful are the profoundly political, moral and personal statements from the soldiers. They speak plainly, forcefully and honestly about their opposition to the occupation and the military policies that lead to the deaths of both Palestinians and Israelis. The reservists are not only leftist activists, though some certainly are. Some are highly decorated combat soldiers, but many are run-of-the-mill soldiers, doing all the things soldiers must do to keep an army and an occupation going. They come from different segments of Israeli society. We read the words of artists, teachers, writers, students, a banker, small business owners, union members, and journalists, to name a few. Some are married, some are not. There is a member of a prominent right-wing family, and one from a family of one of the founders of the state of Israel. Some are children and grandchildren of survivors of the Shoah. Some are from cities, some from kibbutzes.

Take Itai Haviv, who is a captain with an artillery unit, and received a 21-day jail sentence for refusal on March 14, 2002. Clearly not a pacifist, Haviv vividly discusses the day-to-day activities of an occupation:

"As a combat officer in the IDF, I have served all over the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. I am not naive… On behalf of the state of Israel, I have chased children who threw stones at me. I have patrolled the alleyways of refugee camps. I have banged on their tin doors in the small hours of the morning. I have searched among their mattresses for propaganda material. I have heard babies crying. I have hauled people out of bed to erase slogans daubed on walls. I have imposed curfews. I have dealt with Palestinian flags fluttering from power pylons. I have halted vehicles. I have confiscated identity cards. I have conveyed handcuffed prisoners in the back of my jeep. I have fired at rioters. I have halted hundreds of vehicles at roadblocks. I set up an outlook post on the roof of a cake shop in the main street of Gaza. The routine of occupation. Everyday. Every hour. Thirty-five years.

"I believed this was a war of no-choice…

"We have built over 100 settlements. We have sent 200,000 settlers to live there. We have lost soldiers, children, mothers. All for the sake of the security of the state. For the sake of peace. To stop the next suicide bomber. For 35 years, a black flag has flown over our heads, but we refused to see it.

"No more."

"A black flag" refers to the 1956 trial of some Israeli soldiers accused of killing 47 Palestinians. The court found that there are certain orders that ought not be obeyed, saying that "the black flag of illegality" flies over them.

These soldiers’ courage, clarity and willingness to sacrifice give us hope. And we can be hopeful, because, despite the Israeli government’s intransigence, the ranks of the refuseniks have grown. We, even now, see high school students refusing to serve in the army in any capacity. The occupation continues, and more and more are saying no. Here is an excerpt from a letter young David Haham-Herson wrote to his parents. He is one of the high school students refusing to enter the IDF:

"All the terrible reports appearing daily in the press, I read here in Military Jail 4. No pictures, no soundtrack. I see only barbed wire fences, but the pain from outside goes deep. Revenge in return for revenge, killing in return for killing…What is the source of the Israeli sense of pride, why is the act of killing considered so great in our eyes?

"I am a soldier in the Israeli army, imprisoned for refusal to take part in repression, arising from a sense that it is out of the question to be a Jew, the son of a people of refugees, and yet repress a people of refugees… I am a God-fearing Jew, and as such forbidden to take part in denying freedom and serving in occupied territory….

"I am concerned because I know that the terrible hatred towards me is justified. The hatred has led to horrifying and perverted manifestations, like the young suicide bombers, but we create the conditions that lead to this monstrosity. I am concerned because I know that the cries of exultation over the killings drown out the sobs of numerous victims, Jews and Arabs, of the widows and orphans, of the cripples who will suffer for the rest of their lives because of that pride and callousness.

"This is a concern unlike that of most Israeli people. For this concern demands correction [tikkun], whereas the other concern merely calls for more destruction. I am a prisoner, yet free, but the pain runs deep. I hope my imprisonment, and that of others, will lead many in our society to contemplation–contemplation of the Palestinians, and by way of them, contemplation of ourselves. I regard my imprisonment as the true way to participate in present-day Israeli society. I don’t think my imprisonment releases me from responsibility. Even if I weren’t serving in the army, I’d continue to share responsibility for these actions. I’m not the victim. On the contrary; precisely because I regard myself as sharing responsibility, I refuse to take part in the repression…."

Their words lend us strength, strength to continue our resistance to militarism and strength to ask ourselves how much we are truly willing to sacrifice to resist the works of war.

We must listen, though. These are indeed lessons for us, embroiled as we are in the War on Terror, mired as occupiers in Iraq. These are words for us and for those who are or would be in our military. Peretz Kidron states that, by the summer of 2003, over 1,000 Israelis had declared that they would refuse orders sending them to the Occupied Territories. Relative to population size, this would amount to 40,000 US soldiers, according to Peretz Kidron–a powerful thought. What would happen today if there were hundreds of soldiers refusing to go to Afghanistan or Iraq?

——————-

This review originally appeared in the December 2004 issue of The Catholic Worker, 36 East 1st St., New York, NY 10003

——————-

Reprinted by WORLD WAR 4 REPORT, Dec. 10, 2004
Reprinting permissible with attribution

WW4Report.com

VENEZUELA: MURDER CASE LEADS TO MIAMI?

by Weekly News Update on the Americas

Investigators probing the Nov. 18 car bomb assassination of Venezuelan state prosecutor Danilo Anderson have found telephone records suggesting that the killing was planned at a meeting in Miami this past September. One of the participants at the meeting was Jose Augustin Guevara, a brother of ex-police agents Otoniel and Rolando Guevara, who were arrested on Nov. 26 on charges of "premeditated homicide" and conspiracy in the Anderson murder. Otoniel Guevara is accused of being an agent of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). A cousin of the three brothers, Juan Bautista Guevara, is suspected of having planted the bomb on Anderson’s car. Eyewitnesses place him at the scene shortly before Anderson’s car exploded.

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested Jose Guevara in Miami in 2001 when he attempted to withdraw funds from a bank account belonging to Peru’s then-fugitive spy chief, Vladimiro Montesinos Torres, who was wanted in Peru in connection with corruption and human rights abuses. The FBI then released Jose Guevara into its witness protection program. The Guevara brothers are said to have been paid $1 million for hiding Montesinos in Venezuela. Montesinos was arrested in Caracas on June 24, 2001. Venezuelan government spokespeople have also accused Florida-based rightwing Cuban-American Rodolfo Fromenta, head of the anti-Castro paramilitary group Comandos F-4, of links to the Anderson murder.

Venezuela’s Attorney General’s Office has taken over the investigation of the Anderson murder after concerns were raised about irregularities in the probe conducted by agents from the Scientific Criminal Investigations Corps (CICPC), including links between the Guevara brothers and the CICPC. (Venezuelanalysis.com, Dec. 2; El Nuevo Herald, Miami, Dec. 1; La Republica, Lima, Nov. 27) On Nov. 26, CICPC agents fatally shot lawyer Antonio Lopez, a possible suspect in the Anderson case, in an alleged gunfight. The same day, former police agent Juan Carlos Sanchez, also wanted in connection with the Anderson killing, died in a confrontation with police. Both Lopez and Sanchez were linked to the Guevara brothers. Authorities later raided Lopez’s home and said they found high-powered weapons and explosives. (AFP, Nov. 26; NYT, Nov. 24)

At the time of his death, Anderson was heading up investigations into some 400 opposition figures for possible involvement in an April 2002 coup against Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez Frias or other destabilization attempts against the government. On Nov. 26, two of the men Anderson was investigating sought asylum in the Salvadoran embassy in Caracas. Lazaro Forero and Henry Vivas, former chiefs of the Caracas Metropolitan Police, were arrested by Venezuelan authorities on Dec. 3 after the Salvadoran government turned down their request for asylum. The two are accused of responsibility for violence which killed 20 people and wounded dozens more at an opposition march in Caracas on Apr. 11, 2002. Opposition forces used the violence as a pretext for their coup attempt against Chavez the next day. (BBC, Reuters, Dec. 3)

Another two opposition figures who were under investigation by Anderson, former Venezuelan national guard officers Jose Antonio Colina and German Rodolfo Varela, appeared in their final US asylum hearing on Nov. 29 at the Krome detention center in West Miami-Dade. The two sought asylum in the US on Dec. 19 of last year; they are accused in Venezuela of bombing the Colombian and Spanish diplomatic missions in Caracas on Feb. 25, 2003. At the Nov. 29 hearing, US prosecutors told Immigration Judge Neale Foster that neither Colina nor Varela deserve asylum because they fled to evade prosecution–not persecution. Attorneys for the two men blasted US prosecutors for allegedly favoring Chavez, and accused Foster of bias. Foster ordered closing arguments in writing by Jan. 14, promised to weigh the evidence fairly and said he would issue a ruling early next year. (Miami Herald, Dec. 1)

Venezuelan actor and anti-Chavez activist Orlando Urdaneta, interviewed in October on a Miami television station, urged that efficient commandos be hired to assassinate Chavez and his associates in Venezuela. The interviewer, Maria Elvira Salazar, suggested to Urdaneta that the commandos would ideally be Israeli; Urdaneta agreed. On Nov. 25, the Israeli embassy denied any connection with sectors trying to destabilize the Venezuelan government, and denied that any Israelis were involved with the Anderson assassination. (EFE, Nov. 29, Newsday, Nov. 20)

Newly declassified intelligence documents have confirmed that the CIA was aware that dissident military officers and opposition figures in Venezuela were planning a coup against Chavez in 2002. In a senior intelligence executive brief dated April 6 of that year, the CIA said that "disgruntled senior officers and a group of radical junior officers are stepping up efforts to organize a coup against President Chavez, possibly as early as this month." The documents were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by Jeremy Bigwood, a freelance investigative reporter in Washington. In interviews with the New York Times and other news organizations in the days after the April 12 coup, administration officials vigorously denied having had advance knowledge of plans to oust Chavez, who regained power on April 14. (NYT,. Dec. 3)

On Nov. 22, the foreign minister of Spain’s socialist government, Miguel Angel Moratinos, criticized the rightwing government of former Spanish president Jose Maria Aznar for supporting the coup in Venezuela. On Dec. 1, Moratinos reiterated his accusations but apologized for having made them in the wrong place and at an "inappropriate" time. While Aznar didn’t instigate or help plan the coup, he also "didn’t condemn the coup d’etat, endorsed it and offered it international legitimacy," Moratinos charged. (AFP, Dec. 1)

From Weekly News Update on the Americas, Dec. 5

PERU: ONE KILLED IN MINE PROTEST

by Weekly News Update on the Americas

On the evening of Nov. 16, some 2,000 campesinos took over the Buenaventura mining company’s La Zanja camp in the Pulan district of Santa Cruz province, Cajamarca department, in northwestern Peru. The Front for the Defense of the Environment–a previously unknown group, according to governor Segundo Amado Linares–apparently organized the takeover of the camp in order to press a community demand for an end to mining explorations in the zone. Local campesinos fear mining will bring contamination to the area, harming their health and the agriculture they rely on for survival. The campesinos–many of them members of the organized defense groups known as rondas–burned the camp’s buildings and vehicles as the 200 workers based there fled. Police intervened with tear gas but were unable to regain control. Campesino Juan Montenegro Lingan was killed by a bullet, and several people were wounded. Police finally retook the camp on Nov. 17 and arrested 18 people, who were all released later in the day after appearing before a judge. Judge Adolfo Arribasplata also ordered the arrest of 23 other people believed to be involved in the attack on the camp, including the mayor of the village of Tongod, Roberto Becerra Mondragon. (La Republica, Lima, Nov. 19, 25; AFP Nov. 17)

On Nov. 22, residents of Santa Cruz province began a 48-hour civic strike to press their demand for an end to mining exploration. Santa Cruz mayor Cruz Anacario Diaz Mego said area mayors and other local authorities are supporting the communities’ demands, though he said they also condemn the attack on the mining camp. More than 1,000 campesinos marched in Santa Cruz on the first day of the strike, which shut down virtually all activity in the province. On the second day of the strike some 5,000 campesinos marched in Pulan, while Diaz Mego announced in Lima that the strike would be extended indefinitely because Buenaventura officials had rebuffed attempts at dialogue. Diaz Mego said he and other leaders are demanding the temporary suspension of the company’s explorations until local concerns about contamination and the reinvestment of mining profits into the community are addressed. Buenaventura finance manager Carlos Galvez was defiant, saying the company would not cede to any type of pressure and would continue its explorations. A new contingent of 200 riot police arrived from Chiclayo to defend the mining camp against any further attack. (La Republica, Lima, Nov. 22-5)

STRIKES AND PROTESTS SURGE

Some 13,000 doctors carried out a 48-hour strike at 143 state hospitals throughout Peru on Nov. 25 and 26 to demand government compliance with an accord on salary increases signed last May 1. Wearing their white coats, the doctors marched to the Congress building in Lima on Nov. 25, where they presented their list of demands. Hundreds of obstetricians marched to the Congress on Nov. 24, the first day of their own 48-hour strike against layoffs and to demand better benefits. Among other complaints, obstetricians say they are fired if they take maternity leave. Public health support staff meanwhile began their own open-ended strike. (La Republica, Nov. 25, 27; wire services, Nov. 25)

Teachers, workers and campesinos from the leftist General Confederation of Peruvian Workers (CGTP) marched in Lima on Nov. 25 to protest the government’s neoliberal economic policies and demand greater social spending. The CGTP is calling for a constituent assembly to write a new constitution with a new labor code to replace the one promulgated in 1993 by then-president Alberto Fujimori. Protesters also blocked several main avenues in Lima to reject a planned "free trade treaty" (TLC) with the US. (La Hora, Quito, Nov. 26, wire services)

Sugar producers in Chiclayo blocked the Panamerican highway on Nov. 25 to demand government help in improving production. (La Hora, Nov, 26) On Nov. 24 and 25, residents of the northern Ancash region held a civic strike to demand construction of a highway. (AFP, Reuters, Nov, 25) In Ayacucho, residents held a 24-hour strike on Nov. 24 to demand solutions to a conflict over water use. (LR, Nov. 25) In the southern department of Puno, hundreds of people blockaded a main road in Juliaca to protest electricity rate hikes, while residents of Ilave staged a 48-hour strike to protest the rate hikes and high fuel prices and to demand the resignation of Puno governor David Jimenez Sardon, who is accused of corruption. (LR, wire services, Nov. 25)

On Nov. 24, two people were killed and four others wounded during an attack on squatters in Alto Unine, 80 kilometers from the city of Satipo in Junin department. Two of the wounded have disappeared. Police arrested 13 people in connection with the attack. Survivors say the attack was led by Dionisio Maldonado, husband of the president of the Juan Santos Atahualpa Housing Association. The Association, which claims ownership of the disputed land, had recently won a court ruling against the squatters and had previously evicted the 30 families living there and destroyed their homes and property. The squatters had then returned to the land. (LR, Nov. 26, 28)

From Weekly News Update on the Americas, Nov. 28

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Reprinted by WORLD WAR 3 REPORT, Dec. 10, 2004
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ECUADOR: RUMSFELD DOES QUITO

by Weekly News Update on the Americas

At a meeting of Western Hemisphere defense ministers in Quito, Ecuador, on Nov. 16, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called for increased Latin American action against terrorism, hinting that the region’s militaries should be more involved in domestic law enforcement. The US has had "to conduct an arduous yet essential re-examination of the relationship between its military and law enforcement responsibilities," he said. Many Latin American countries suffered from human rights abuses while they were under the rule of US-backed military regimes in the 1970s and 1980s. As a result some, like Argentina, have tried to bar the military from policing operations. US officials have suggested that the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda is moving into the hemisphere; the US has offered no evidence, and some experts are skeptical. (Reuter, Nov. 17)

Rumsfeld visited three Central American countries on his way to Quito. After a Nov. 11-12 stay in El Salvador, Rumsfeld stopped over in Nicaragua, where President Enrique Bolanos promised to destroy the country’s more than 1,000 surface-to-air missiles, a move opposed by the leftist Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN). (Nicaragua had already destroyed about 1,000 missiles by November 2003, but resisted destroying the rest). On Nov. 13 Rumsfeld arrived in Panama for talks with President Martin Torrijos. Rumsfeld promised that the US would continue to provide technical advice to the National Police on the struggle against terrorism and on security for the Panama Canal. (La Prensa, Panama, Nov. 17)

From Weekly News Update on the Americas, Nov. 21

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CHILE: MASS PROTESTS AT APEC MEET

by Weekly News Update on the Americas

Chilean police arrested some 300 people, mostly students, who were protesting in Santiago on Nov. 17 against the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, scheduled for Nov. 19-21 in Chile, and the participation of US president George W. Bush. "No Bush, no APEC," the protesters chanted. Militarized Carabinero police attacked them with water cannons and tear gas. Those arrested included journalists and Rodrigo Soto, a member of the Chilean branch of Amnesty International; he was released without charges. Protesters said many arrests were arbitrary. "They took away my friend because he said cowards wear green," student Tamara White told a reporter; the Carabineros wear green uniforms. The demonstration was called by the Anti-APEC Coordinating Committee, headed by the Chilean Communist Party and the Manuel Rodriguez Patriotic Front (FPMR). (AFP, DPA, Reuters, Nov. 18)

The Chilean Social Forum (FSCH), a coalition of some 100 groups opposed to neoliberal economic policies, held a far larger demonstration on Nov. 19. Estimates ranged from 15,000 to 70,000 for participation in the event, a march along the Alameda, Santiago’s main avenue, to the Bustamante Park, where organizers held a cultural event. The march was peaceful, although there were isolated confrontations in the park and police agents used tear gas. The FSCH had scheduled workshops and meetings on Nov. 20-21 to discuss alternatives to neoliberalism. In preparation for the FSCH, the national police distributed a leaflet to schools and government offices urging citizens to report "suspicious attitudes" and "the places of anti-APEC meetings." "Chile may be at the end of the world, but for international terrorism, nothing is far enough away," the leaflet warned. (Servicio Informativo "Alai-amlatina" Nov. 19; NYT, Nov. 20)

The center-left Chilean government suddenly dropped plans for President Ricardo Lagos to host a large formal dinner for Bush the evening of Nov. 21 at the end of the APEC meeting. Instead, the two presidents were to have a small "working dinner" together. Lagos indignantly denied reports that the formal dinner was cancelled because of excessive security demands by US officials, who reportedly wanted to have all 250 guests searched with US metal detectors. (La Tercera, Chile, Nov. 21) There was an incident between US and Chilean security agents before dinner on Nov. 20. According to the New York Times, "a scrum of shoving Chilean security officers" blocked Bush’s lead Secret Service agent. Bush "turned around and walked up to the group, reached in to pull his agent free, and walked back into the [dining] hall, shaking his head." (NYT, Nov. 21)

From Weekly News Update on the Americas, Nov. 21

MAPUCHE ACTIVISTS ACQUITTED

On Nov. 4, the criminal court in the Chilean city of Temuco acquitted eight members of the Arauco Malleco Collective, a Mapuche [indigenous] activist group, who had been accused of terrorist association for a series of arson attacks against the Forestal Mininco company and private estates in the Ninth Region. The three-judge panel ruled that the Public Ministry had failed to present sufficient proof of the defendants’ participation in the attacks. Mapuche activists Jorge Huaiquin, Oscar Higueras, Marcelo Quintrileo and Mauricio Contreras were freed upon acquittal; Aniceto Norin, Pascual Pichun, Jose Llanca and Patricia Troncoso–the one non-Mapuche in the group–were returned to jail, where they are serving sentences for convictions related to the Mapuche conflict.

Another eight defendants–seven Mapuche activists and one non-Mapuche supporter–have been charged in the same case but remain at large; in October they issued a communique saying they would go into hiding rather than face an unjust trial. (La Tercera, Santiago, Nov. 5)

From Weekly News Update on the Americas, Nov. 14

See also WW3 REPORT #95
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Reprinted by WORLD WAR 3 REPORT, Dec. 10, 2004
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COLOMBIA: WHO ARE THE “NARCO-TERRORISTS”?

Did Bush Pledge Support for Colombia’s Top Terrorist and Drug Dealer in his Cartagena Photo-Op with Alvaro Uribe?

by Bill Weinberg

President Bush’s brief stop in Colombia on his return from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Chile on Nov. 22 brought this forgotten front in Washington’s war on terrorism briefly into the headlines. Bush promised Colombia’s President Alvaro Uribe–his closest South American ally–to boost aid for his military campaign against so-called "narco-terrorists."

"Our two nations share in the struggle against drugs," Bush said during a joint press conference with Uribe at the Caribbean port of Cartagena. "The drug traffickers who practice violence and intimidation in this country send their addictive and deadly products to the United States."

Bush expressed optimism that Colombia can win its war against drugs and terrorism. "Colombia is well on the way to that victory," he said, adding that Uribe has built "an impressive record" since he took office in August 2002.

"We will win, but we have not won yet," Uribe chimed in. He added, using his favorite metaphor: "We have made progress, but the serpent is still alive." (AFPS, Nov. 24)

Uribe made sure to wear a Red Sox cap at the photo-op, in honor of Orlando Cabrera, the Boston shortstop who pledged his support to Bush after his team won the World Series in October–who was also on hand to wow the press. (NYT N23)

The top target of Uribe’s "anti-terrorist" campaign is the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a 15,000-strong leftist guerilla force which Uribe’s army is currently battling in a major offensive in the country’s southern jungles, known as Plan Patriot. Days after Bush’s visit, Defense Minister Jorge Uribe (who was appointed by the president, but is not related to him) told reporters that informants said the FARC had instructed agents to "assassinate President Bush" in Cartagena. Bush was protected by 15,000 Colombian troops and police, US troops, and Secret Service agents during his three-hour stop in Colombia. (AP, Nov. 30)

Invisible Terror

Just two weeks before Bush’s Cartagena photo-op, 100 unarmed peasants were killed in a massacre by rightist paramilitary troops in Colombia’s southern jungle province of Putumayo. Survivors who fled across the border to Ecuador said the victims were cut to pieces with chainsaws and machetes while tied hanging from beams. Unlike the Bush visit, this failed to make headlines. (La Hora, Quito, Nov. 12, via Weekly News Update on the Americas)

Shortly after Bush’s visit, on Dec. 6, two Embera-Katio indigenous leaders were assassinated by gunmen who entered their reserve in Antioquia province. The three were Horacio Bailirin, former director of the Indigenous Organization of Antioquia (OIA); Arturo Domico, another OIA leader; and Misael Domico, former governor of the Embera-Katio reserve of Las Playas, in Apartado municipality, where the killings took place of. Witnesses said 10 heavily armed men in Colombian army uniforms carried out the killings, dumped the bodies in the nearby Rio Ibudo, and threatened to kill more if community members retrieved the bodies for a proper burial. This also failed to garner any headlines in the US. (ACIN statement, Dec. 9)

Much of the ongoing violence in the Colombian countryside does appear to be linked to drugs. The paras and guerillas appear to be at war for control over Colombia’s cocaine trade–the key to money, weapons and power in the country. Peasants who are forced to grow coca leaf for one side end up being targeted by the other. The peasants killed in the Putumayo massacre, for instance, we apparently working as hired hands to harvest coca on a jungle plantation. In June, the FARC was implicated in a similar massacre of peasant coca-growers in Norte de Santander province (see WW3 REPORT #100).

Officially, the US-backed Plan Colombia is aimed at putting an end to drug-related violence. In an August press conference in Washington, US Drug Czar John Walters claimed coca production has declined in Colombia by 30% over the past two years, and also boasted that 40% of US cocaine imports had been intercepted last year, thanks to international cooperation. (AP, Aug. 10)

But a new report critical of US policy in Colombia, "Going to Extremes," released by the DEC-based Latin America Working Group (LAWG), states that this has not resulted in a reduction in the amount of cocaine reaching the US–production in the Andean region as a whole has remained stable for 15 years, with Peru and Bolivia picking up the slack following the crackdown in Colombia. This is partially why Bush has expanded Plan Colombia into the Andean Initiative, with military aid packages for Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia.

And in spite of official optimism, Ricardo Vargas of Andean Action, a Colombian policy group, told the New York Times after Bush’s visit that coca production has spread from 12 of Colombia’s provinces to 23 in roughly the period that Plan Colombia–with its program of aerial herbicide-spraying of coca-growing areas–has been in effect. (NYT, Nov. 23)

The "Bogota Cartel"?

Critics also point to ongoing collaboration between the Colombian army and the ostensibly outlawed paramilitary groups. The paramilitary network known as the United Colombian Self-Defense Forces (AUC) is (like the FARC) on the US State Department terrorist list. The problem, say rights organizations, is that Uribe is not fighting the AUC–his government is negotiating with them, while refusing to do so with the guerillas. Despite official denials, rights advocates continue to cite cooperation between the AUC and Colombia’s official military.

Since July, negotiations with the AUC have been taking place in a 142-square-mile safe haven in northwestern Cordoba province, where AUC leaders are not subject to arrest, and where their demobilized fighters are supposed to gather before they disarm. But the AUC paras maintain their reign of terror throughout much of the country, threatening peasant communities and imposing "war taxes" on them, and carrying out assassinations and massacres against the uncooperative.

Especially controversial are proposals for the AUC leaders to receive an amnesty from prison time for massacres and atrocities. A group of Colombian lawmakers has come together to draft a proposal requiring paramilitary bosses convicted in such cases to serve at least eight years, and return all property acquired illegally. Under the proposal, the penalties would be a government condition for any peace agreements with the paras. Lawmakers supporting the measure include both Rep. Wilson Borja Díaz, a former trade unionist injured in a 2000 para assassination attempt, and Sen. Rafael Pardo Rueda, a former defense minister who supports President Uribe. (Colombia Week, Nov. 22; NYT, Nov. 16)

The measure would apply to guerilla organizations too. But Uribe has shown little interest in resuming peace talks with the guerillas, broken off under his predecessor Andres Pastrana. In a Dec. 2 communique, the FARC proposed that a safe haven be established for the group in Valle del Cauca province–but insisted that Plan Patriot be called off before any talks resume. (ANNCOL Dec. 3)

Controversy has long raged over whether a new crime machine has consolidated since the rival cocaine cartels of Medellin and Cali were crushed in the 1990s. There may be legitimacy to rightist claims that the FARC aspires to become the "new cartel." But Uribe’s critics claim he has long maintained ties to the paras, who now control at least as great a share of the cocaine trade–if not greater. Critics increasingly speak of a "Bogota Cartel" which is emerging–with far closer links to Colombian officialdom than either the Medellin or Cali cartels ever maintained.

Coca or Oil?

And targets of AUC’s terror have included not only guerillas, but also (as in the recent Antioquia assassinations) Indians demanding their constitutional right to local autonomy and non-involvement in the war, and (as in the recent Putumayo massacre) peasants simply caught between all sides. Another key target has been trade unionists

In 2002, 184 trade unionists were killed in Colombia–82 of them teachers, according to the teacher’s union FECODE. (ANNCOL, Nov. 30) In 2003, 94 were killed, while 58 have been slain in 2004 as of press time. Altogether, 2,100 unionists have been slain since 1991. Nearly all are believed to be victims of AUC terror. Only 19 of these killings have been successfully prosecuted. (NYT, Nov. 18)

Oil workers opposing Uribe’s plan to privatize the state company Ecopetrol have been especially targeted by the paras–and they have nothing to do with the cocaine trade. The AUC and the FARC may be struggling for control of the cocaine trade. But the fast-growing US involvement in Colombia may have to do with control over another resource–oil.

The Iraq war and Middle East chaos have made South America’s oil resources more strategic to the US. Venezuela, bordering Colombia, is the fourth US supplier after Saudi Arabia, Mexico and Canada–and it is under the populist government of Hugo Chavez, a White House target for western hemisphere "regime change" second only to Cuba. Colombia itself is among the top 15 global suppliers to the US, and Uribe hopes to privatize the country’s industry as part of his push to join Bush’s Free Trade Area of the Americas.

One beneficiary of the escalated troop presence in Colombia is Occidental Petroleum–colloquially, "Oxy". Bush’s 2003 foreign operations budget request included $98 million to train and equip a Colombian army brigade to protect Oxy’s Cano-Limon pipeline linking the oilfields of Arauca province with the Caribbean. Arauca, the heart of Oxy’s operations, hosts the greatest concentration of US military advisors and has Colombia’s worst human rights situation. (See WW3 REPORT #43)

But the oil industry is seeking to expand beyond Arauca, on the Orinoco plains bordering Venezuela. Uribe is luring investment for Putumayo, in the Amazon basin bordering Ecuador, where a new bonanza of oil is said to await. Putumayo is now the epicenter of Uribe’s Patriot Plan offensive against the guerillas–which has largely been ineffective. Guerilla fighters melt into Putumayo’s jungle as the army approaches, leaving behind snipers and land mines to pick off government troops. Under close army protection, the firm Petrotesting Colombia is exploring for oil and gas deposits in Putumayo. The army hasn’t even been effective at protecting these operations–in recent months, FARC has burned nine Petrotesting tanker trucks, and killed one driver.

Uribe’s efforts to lure more transnational investment are paying off. ExxonMobil and the Brazilian giant Petrobras have recently signed offshore drilling contracts on what the New York Times calls "beneficial terms." Harken Energy–President Bush’s former firm–recently signed exploration contract.

Beneficial terms aren’t the only lure–Uribe also has to guarantee oil companies a modicum of security against guerilla attack. Towards this aim, he has launched a Presidential Councilor for Infrastructure Protection, which serves as a direct liaison between oil companies and the military.

Of course, the hardline Uribe has militarized the entire country since taking office. The New York Times reports that there are now army or national police troops operating in all of Colombia’s 1,100 municipalities, filling in gap of some 200 since before Uribe took power. But critics note that those forces receiving the most US military aid are in Colombia’s oil zones. "Even if the Uribe government has launched offensives in other places, the US assistance has been in places that do have oil reserves," Adam Isacson of DC’s Center for International Policy told the Times. "Coincidence?" (NYT, Oct. 22)

RESOURCES:

Latin America Working Group:
http://www.lawg.org/

Center for International Policy’s Colombia Program:
http://www.ciponline.org/colombia/index.htm

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Special to WORLD WAR 4 REPORT, Dec. 10, 2004
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