by Travis Wheeler
on September 23, 2003
H.E. Álvaro Uribe Vélez
President
Republic of Colombia
Casa de Nariño
Bogota, Colombia
Dear Mr. President:
In recognition of the tremendous challenges which your country faces in its war against terrorism and narcotics trafficking, we write to commend you for your government’s stated commitment to helping to ensure greater security for all Colombians, but also to express our deep concerns about continuing links between segments of the Colombian security forces and paramilitary terrorist organizations.
Several actions by your government have served to promote human rights in Colombia. Most notably, we welcomed your government’s invitation to the United Nations’ Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to extend its mandate in Colombia through 2006, and your stated commitment to implement fully the recommendations of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in his February 2003 report. Of particular interest to us are the recommendations which address the need for: a sustained government security presence in rehabilitated or consolidated zones where many vulnerable populations, like Afro-Colombians and indigenous peoples, reside; the security forces to learn and adhere systematically to international human rights and humanitarian norms; the establishment of a task force within the Attorney General’s Office which would specialize on investigating possible links between members of the security forces and paramilitary groups; and the immediate suspension from duty of any member of the security forces who has been involved in serious human rights violations.
We highlight these recommendations because we are deeply troubled by continuing credible reports of persistent links between members of the Colombian security forces and paramilitary terrorist organizations. In the latest Country Report on Human Rights Practices in Colombia, the U.S. Department of State found credible allegations of passive support and direct collaboration by members of the public security forces, particularly the army, and paramilitary groups. The State Department also found evidence suggesting that there were “tacit arrangements between local military commanders and paramilitary groups in some regions,” where “members of the security forces actively collaborated with members of paramilitary groups — passing them through roadblocks, sharing intelligence, providing them with ammunition, and allegedly even joining their ranks while off duty.”
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights made similar findings. In his February 2003 report on the human rights situation in Colombia, the High Commissioner revealed that the UN Office in Colombia had received reports of “security forces themselves announcing the impending arrival of pa
ramilitary groups, and even of cases where local inhabitants recognized members of military forces among paramilitary contingents.” The High Commissioner also noted that the impression of direct links between members of the security forces and the paramilitary was fueled by reports of the direct involvement of security forces in paramilitary activities, including massacres, theft, and organizational meetings.
Mr. President, these reports are troubling not only because of the humanitarian toll inflicted by this collaboration on vulnerable populations who are caught in the cross-hairs of the conflict, but also because we simply cannot condone any cooperation with known terrorists, such as the paramilitaries, whether that cooperation comes from private individuals, firms, or governments.
As we continue to work with you and your government on a broad range of initiatives of mutual concern, certain actions by your government would greatly ameliorate our concerns, including the immediate suspension of officers against whom there is credible evidence of paramilitary collaboration. We also would welcome increased funding and high-level support for the Public Advocate’s office (Defensoria del Pueblo) and the Inspector General’s office (Procuraduría). Finally, a clear sign of your government’s commitment to shattering the links between members of the security forces and the terrorist paramilitaries would be the aggressive prosecution of high-ranking officers, such as former Navy Admiral Rodrigo Quiñones, who have reportedly been involved in serious human rights abuses with the paramilitaries.
Lastly, although we applaud your courage and commitment to securing a lasting peace with the umbrella organization for the paramilitaries, the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (known by the Spanish acronym, the “AUC”), we have doubts about your government’s willingness to prosecute AUC members, including Carlos Castaño and Salvatore Mancuso, for their gross violations of human rights and drug trafficking in Colombia. Recent public statements made by Colombia’s High Commissioner for Peace Luis Carlos Restrepo indicate that your government may consider allowing these criminals to receive suspended sentences and pay reparations in lieu of jail time. We believe that such an exchange would amount to impunity for serious human rights violations and would erode the rule of law in Colombia, encourage further violence, and establish an undesirable template for future negotiations with the guerrillas. Instead, we encourage you to ensure that an eventual peace agreement with the AUC includes accountability for human rights violations, excludes the possibility of cash-for-justice swaps, provides for the rapid disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration of the AUC combatants, and requires that your government control disarmament and demobilization zones.
Mr. President, we recognize our nation’s responsibility to help Colombia and look forward to working with you and your government towards our shared objective of a peaceful, secure, and prosperous Colombia.
Most Cordially,
Representatives
Ackerman, Gary L.
Abercrombie, Neil
Baldwin, Tammy
Becerra, Xavier
Bell, Chris
Berman, Howard L.
Brown, Sherrod
Clyburn, James E.
Conyers, John Jr.
Crowley, Joseph
Cummings, Elijah E.
DeLauro, Rosa L.
Emanuel, Rahm
Engel, Eliot L.
Evans, Lane
Farr, Sam
Frank, Barney
Grijalva, Raúl M.
Gutierrez, Luis V.
Harris, Katherine
Hinchey, Maurice D.
Honda, Michael M.
Jones, Stephanie Tubbs
Kucinich, Dennis J.
Langevin, James R.
Lantos, Tom
Leach, James A.
Lee, Barbara
Levin, Sander M.
Lipinski, William O.
Lowey, Nita M.
Maloney, Carolyn B.
McCarthy, Karen
McCollum, Betty
McGovern, James P.
Meeks, Gregory W.
Miller, George
Nadler, Jerrold
Oberstar, James L.
Payne, Donald M.
Rangel, Charles B.
Rush, Bobby L.
Ryan, Timothy J.
Schakowsky, Janice D.
Shays, Christopher
Skelton, Ike
Solis, Hilda L.
Tierney, John F.
Towns, Edolphus
Udall, Tom
Van Hollen, Chris
Waters, Maxine
Watson, Diane E.
Weiner, Anthony D.
Wexler, Robert
Woolsey, Lynn C.
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by Travis Wheeler
on July 23, 2002
Secretary of State Colin Powell
The US State Department
2201 C Street
Washington, DC
Dear Secretary of State Powell,
We are writing to express our concern over the State Department’s decision to certify Colombia’s compliance with section 567 of the FY2002 foreign operations appropriations bill. We are not convinced that the evidence supports the contention that the Colombian military is suspending personnel credibly alleged to have committed serious human rights violations, cooperating with civilian judicial authorities, and taking effective measures to sever links with paramilitary groups. As you consider your decision on the second round of military aid, which we understand may be made in September, please take the following comments into consideration. The Congress included conditions in the FY2002 foreign operations legislation to ensure that the Colombian Armed Forces, which receive the bulk of the funds destined to Colombia through the Andean Regional Initiative, are respecting human rights.
We appreciate the State Department’s efforts to make clear to the Colombian government the importance of improving the human rights situation and meeting the specific requirements of section 567. We are dismayed, however, by the lack of response from the Colombian government. In particular, we are unconvinced that the short list of primarily lower-level soldiers and officers who have been suspended for human rights violations from January 2001 to April 2002 constitutes progress, given the substantial evidence against a number of high-level officers who remain on active duty despite credible evidence that they have tolerated, aided or abetted paramilitary forces. In addition, there is disturbing evidence that the Colombian attorney general lacks the political will to investigate and prosecute army officers implicated in grave violations.
The State Department’s report on the certification decision cited the appointment of General Rodrigo Quiñones to a military attaché position as evidence of progress. But, despite an outstanding decision by the Procuradería concluding that General Quiñones had planned and ordered the murders of at least 57 trade unions, human rights, and community leaders in the Barrancabermeja area in 1991-92, this officer remains on active duty. In 2000, troops under his command were implicated in helping paramilitaries to carry out the El Salado massacre. A year later, those same troops, with Quiñones as commander, allegedly allowed heavily armed paramilitaries to travel past them to Chengue, where paramilitaries committed a massacre. A Navy sergeant under Quiñones’ command was subsequently charged with supplying weapons to paramilitaries and helping coordinate the attack in Chengue. Quiñones was charged with ignoring detailed information received in advance about paramilitary movements near Chengue. The failure to investigate, prosecute, and punish high-level officers like Quiñones, General Gabriel Diaz, and others who are strongly implicated in aiding and abetting paramilitary forces has a profound impact on the attitudes of other members of Colombia’s military.
Events surrounding the Chengue massacre case also demonstrate the Colombian military’s continued resistance to cooperate fully with civilian justice officials. Prosecutor Yolanda Paternina Negrete, who led the Chengue investigation, told her superiors that officers in Colombia’s Marine Infantry failed repeatedly to provide her with the support necessary to search a ranch where witnesses claimed the paramilitaries responsible for the massacre were located. On May 27, 2001, two investigators working on the case were detained by known paramilitaries and are now presumed dead. On August 29, 2001, Prosecutor Paternina herself was killed by unidentified gunmen in Sincelejo, Sucre. The office in Colombia of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights called these killings “a systematic campaign of retaliation and intimidation” by those seeking “total impunity for the most serious crimes committed in the country.”
We are also disturbed by the characterization of army actions in Barrancabermeja as an example of progress in breaking army-paramilitary ties. Despite the high concentration of security forces in Barrancabermeja, the city remains under virtual paramilitary control. Paramilitaries move freely through the city, issue rules of conduct, and exert control over the civilian population, who live in an atmosphere of terror.
We would like to see further evidence of what happens after paramilitary troops are captured. We understand that the numbers of paramilitary captures reported by the Colombian Ministry of Defense has increased. It is important to analyze whether those captured are prosecuted and punished, or released; as well as whether some high-ranking officials are among those captured and prosecuted.
We believe that the Colombian government’s failure to act effectively to sever army-paramilitary ties, despite pressure from the U.S. State Department and the requirements of section 567, bodes ill for the future of U.S.-Colombian military cooperation and for the protection of human rights in Colombia. Moreover, we have been assured that U.S. assistance and training would promote the professionalism of the Colombian military and improve the human rights record of the Colombian military. To date, we believe there has been little progress. Again, we urge you to take our concerns into account when determining whether to approve additional military aid for Colombia this year.
Sincerely,
Jan Schakowsky
Sherrod Brown
Barbara Lee
James McGovern
Lane Evans
Joe Wilson
George Miller
Jesse Jackson, Jr.
Marcy Kaptur
Stephen Lynch
Maurice Hinchey
Lloyd Doggett
William O. Lipinski
James Leach
Rosa DeLauro
Zoe Lofgren
Bobby Rush
Tom Lantos
Lynn Woolsey
Maxine Waters
Tom Sawyer
Jose Serrano
William Coyne
Bernard Sanders
Ciro Rodriguez
Sam Farr
Donald Payne
James Oberstar
Rod Blagojevich
Michael Doyle
Nita Lowey
John Conyers
Cynthia McKinney
Jerry Kleczka
Dennis Kucinich
Elijah Cummings
Patsy Mink
Robert Borski
Tammy Baldwin
David Wu
William Lacy Clay
Ed Markey
Howard Berman
Nick Rahall
Danny Davis
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