Colombia's (Para)military

[translated by Justin Podur]

I

On the 27 of February, 1997, the people of Bijao del Cacarica, a population no longer found in Northeastern Colombia, were invited to a soccer match.

Those who called the match made it clear that attendance was obligatory.  There were no posters, nor publicity of any kind because in places like these, of such small size, all that was unnecessary.  Word of mouth was sufficient. 

One of the teams, the one composed of members Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (1), was announced in advance as the winner.  The other team, the one composed of soldiers from the Colombian Army, searched for some way to exit from its commitment.  In the midst of the sepuchral silence provoked by the events of the previous three days, the neighbors gathered, slowly, under the shade of the trees at the town square.  Then the teams came out on to the field.  Someone asked how to tell the teams apart, since they all wore the same uniform and all had the same ferocious expressions and had identical rifles slung over their shoulders.  "You have to look at the patch on the right arm," responded another.  "Those that have the patch are AUC.  The rest are from the Army."

Three days earlier, in the office of the 17th Brigade, based in Carepa, General Rito Alejo del Rio had set in motion "Operation Genesis" against the 57th Front of the FARC (2).  With support from planes equipped with bombers and heavy guns, soldiers and paramilitaries arrived shoulder-to-shoulder in Bijao.  They burned houses, expelled the population, and threatened the people with death.  As a result, when the same people learned that there would be a friendly gathering at the centre of town, they believed that the wave of terror had begun to recede, that the invaders would be returning soon to their barracks.

Once the teams were on the field, the referee sounded his whistle.  Each team took up positions on the field.  Then a helper brought a large bag to the centre of the field, emptying its contents at a point equidistant from the two forwards who would start the game with the initial kickoff.  The audience cried out in horror.  The soccer ball was the head of Marino Lopez, one of their friends.

For long minutes the only sound heard by the inhabitants was the cracking of the players' feet on the man's destroyed skull.  In the oppressive sun of that unending morning, the paramilitary team past the defense of its opponent and scored twice.  After the second goal the captain announced that the soccer ball would no longer serve, and so the game would have to end.

The members of the Army team had to follow.  They didn't like to lose, but the game had been clean.  The forward, who had come close to scoring twice, apologized to his companions.  "The ball was terrible", he said.  "Hopefully next time they will inflate it properly before the game."

Next, the players hugged and congratulated each other and went off to get drunk at the store in town.  "The town is now free of those gangsters," said the chief of the paramilitaries.  Everyone applauded.

The above alone would be quite adequate for the script of a horror movie.  But it is just a small part of what happened in Bijao.

"On February 27 I was there in Bijao", a witness told 'Justicia y Paz' (3).  "A group of paramilitaries arrived, along with a soldier from the army, at around 9am.  Marino Lopez told me: 'I'm afraid, I'm not sure whether I should go to Turbo'.  The paramilitaries and army soldiers surrounded the entire village.  The people had already left, some up the mountain, others to La Tapa.  They brought us all together and threatened as.  They told Marino to get some coconuts.  He was afraid, and we told them 'let's go'.  Marino told them 'you gave us three days', and one of them said 'you are leaving today'.  Two of the army soldiers took Marino.  After he got them the coconuts, he put on his boots and sweater, and they asked him for his documents.  One of them said: 'Now we want your identification, guerrilla.  You can pick it up from your mom.'  And they accused him of being a guerrilla.  He told them 'You know I am not a guerrilla'.  They insulted him, beat him.  One of the criminals took a machete and cut him.  Marino tried to flee, running into river, but they said: 'if you flee it will be worse.'  He returned, extending his left arm out of the water.  One of the paramilitaries cut his head off with the machete.  Then they cut his arms, then they cut his legs off at the knees.  And they began to play soccer with his head.  We all saw it.  There is nothing else to say.  It's all said.  They are damned, with no faith, no morals.  It was all gray, the soul, the sky, the earth.  It was all silent.  It was all terror.  Bombardment of our bodies and souls.  Death turned into a game."

This was the beginning of the year of terror that the region of Cacarica lived in 1997.  On April 4, according to testimonies, a commando unit of military and paramilitary soldiers cantoned in Apartado ripped open the stomach of Daniel Pino in front of international observers who had arrived days earlier to gather evidence on previous human rights violations in the area.  The campesino died after an hour of agony, during which no one could help him, trying to put his intestines back into his body.

On May 28 of the same year, army soldiers and paramilitaries (I apologize in advance, I will be repeating this phrase, "army soldiers and paramilitaries", as many times as is necessary) removed the scalp of Edilberto Jimenez, from Pavarando, and wandered around town with the head covered with flies, and destroyed his body in front of his parents' house.  On June 15, in Bella Vista, Bojaya, army soldiers and paramilitaries beheaded Wilmer Mena and cut his arms off.  On November 26, army soldiers and paramilitaries took Heriberto Areiza and Ricaurte Monroy, from La Balsita, out of their homes, gouged out their eyes, and filled the eye sockets with acid.

These are just a few examples of the actions of those who implemented "Operation Genesis", the brainchild of General Rito Alejo Del Rio.  Under pressure from the international community, the government of Andres Pastrana sanctioned the general.  But in Colombia these crimes always go unpunished.  A little later, Alvaro Uribe, a shady politician who wanted to become President of the Repbulic, gave the general the title of "Pacifier of Uraba" at a banquet.  And things stayed like that.

Well, the 'Pacifier of Uraba' lost his visa to travel to the United States when the government of that country accused him suspicion of narcotrafficking and terrorism.  Last march, in its normal press conference, the State Department announced that they had taken this action "in 1999, for the mentioned charges, under immigration laws 212 A3B and A2C".

On the same day, by way of a Washington correspondent, the Bogota daily El Tiempo provided some little known details of the case.  "Number A3B, cited in the case of Del Rio - the newspaper explains - says 'Visas will be denied to any foreigner that has participated in terrorist activities'.  Number A2C, the other code applied against the general, refers to any person who is a narcotrafficker, has participated in the traffic of drugs, or has collaborated in an activity related to narcotrafficking.  In the case of terrorism, the State Department refers to the charges against Del Rio for his supposed formation of paramilitary groups by the general who was in command of the 17th Brigade between 1995 and 1997 in Antioquian Uraba, a territory where a confrontation between the illegal self-defense groups and the guerrillas took place.  In the exact same case, the Attorney-General of Colombia decided this week to drop the charges against Del Rio because they lacked merit."

This is about the case against Del Rio.

II

Let us begin at the beginning.  The military and paramilitary assault against the populations of the Atrato river region was part of the systematic displacement to which millions of Colombians have been condemned.  In this case, the idea was to dislodge a FARC guerrilla front, located in the zone, and bring the territory under the control of the narcotraffickers and the businesses used by the traffickers to present a legitimate face to society.

For those unfamiliar with Colombian geography, it is necessary to say that the Atrato river runs through one of the world's most biologically diverse regions.  The fresh water springs of Darien make this an irreplaceable reserve for the future.  It has not been easy to make the major corporations forget their plan to build an interoceanic canal between the Pacific and Atlantic without the ailments and breaks of the Panama canal.  It is also known that the region contains uranium reserves that could serve major industries for decades.  For all this, the drug barons decided that the territory had to be theirs and that its inhabitants had to go.  From the first testimonies on the offensive, it was known that the army and the paramilitaries were marching together.  The communities could not offer any resistance.  These were defenceless people, dedicated to subsistance agriculture and fishing, without a consistent economy, without adequate health or education facilities, without any way of marketing their products.

Because of testimonies that have always been known but were only recently published, I can say that "Operation Genesis" was under control of the dark official known as General Del Rio, but that it was conceived at higher levels.  I do not know whether any of the functionaries involved in the investigation against him bothered to ask him about the significance of the term "Genesis".  That is a shame, because his response would have permitted some interesting conclusions.  What is certain is that Del Rio was the strategist for a social cleansing operation that involved a minimum of two hundred well documented crimes against humanity, as related by human rights organizations and presented to the functionary dealing with the case on August 22, 2001.

None of this merited even minimal consideration by the Attorney General, Mr. Osorio.  In the "Public Declaration" signed by 67 institutions and individuals worried about the degeneration of justice implied by this, one can read that "Osorio was begged to assume the investigation within the parameters of international law, because it was obvious that these were not isolated crimes, but systematic practices that reproduce the same aggression in different spaces and times as part of a strategy or policy that is backed, supported or protected by agents of the State in various agencies, categories, and capacities.  The Attorney General refused to consider even whether penalties provided by international law had been applied; he refused to pass the decrees demanded by the nature of the crimes and their context; he refused to involve other functionaries whose active or passive conduct provided the conditions under which the crimes could take place; he refused to examine the role played by institutions in the design, determination, facilitation, and execution of the crimes; he refused to focus the investigation on the main objective of ending the crimes, as the Penal Code specifies that he must in one of its main articles (article 21) and he refused to recognize a civil part in the form of a 'Popular Actor', invoked by article 45 of the Penal Code... this last was corrected by the Constitutional Court that revised a Tutela Action for denial of justice (T-249/03) (4).  The court included in its sentence that the search for truth and justice by a Civil action by a 'Popular Actor' in such horrific crimes is legitimated by the constitution."

By any standard this is a palpable demonstration of something that the international community could not ignore.  For many months it has been said that the government of Alvaro Uribe is an accomplice to the criminal action of the paramilitaries, and irrefutable proof has been provided of the macabre design behind Uribe's 'Democratic Security' policies, the phony 'peace dialogues' with Castano and his accomplices, and the fact that the narcotrafficking organizations could not be dismantled and instead are an ever-growing presence in the communities.  The management of this government favors organized crime.  This week I received a frightening message that says all we have to say in very few words.  At the risk of making this account longer than it would be, I will quote the relevant paragraph.

"The Atlantic Coast, and especially Cordoba, is a true paramilitary-controlled zone.  It should be re-named PARA-guay, with its capital PARA-guachon, and its river PARA-na (instead of Magdalena).  The government has handed over control of public order to the paramilitaries, and this is evident in every one of the few cities and urban centres.  Like in 'El Proceso', there are eyes and ears everywhere in Monteria.  The main western route, from San Juan to Bongo, from Bongo to Corozal, from Bongo to Magangue, and the side roads, are closed to vehicular traffic after 7pm.  I saw convoys of 3-4 supertrucks with tinted windows traveling at 130 km/h, passing the fortified checkpoint at Bongo.  It was the PARA-guayans returning from butchery.  It was all part of a perfect plan: it's only been a month since Alvaro Uribe, in a solemn ceremony in Sincelejo, kicked off the program with a dowry of modern communication systems with advanced cellular technology so that 'the landowners and ranchers can communicate and stay in contact with security forces in case of suspicious situations.'  The use of the chainsaw and the machete to slaughter campesinos has become standard.  Last Sunday, at night, near San Onofre, the PARA-guayans dynamited a house with a dozen inhabitants inside, half of them children.  They disposed of them afterwards."

III

This is the government.  A repressive government, allied to common criminals, that puts the judicial mechanisms at the service of narcotraffickers.  The "Political Commander" of the paramilitaries says otherwise, but his organization, which started as the armed wing of the drug barons, is today the major cartel of Colombia, and it has ramifications throughout the world.  On February 11 of this year, when Alvaro Uribe began his disastrous tour of Europe, the Italian president and his prime minister refused to receive him.  The meeting was not even mentioned in his agenda, and Berlusconi claimed to have 'other commitments'.  But the reality was different: the audience was cancelled because days before, in a port in southern Italy, the Italian police had captured an enormous cargo of cocaine.  Its owner?  Salvatore Mancuso, the "Military Commander" of the AUC, allied to the Uribe government, and one of the main actors in the 'peace dialogues' that are ongoing today.

'Peace dialogues'!  In this gigantic juridicial fraud that Uribe hides behind, it is worth remembering that the Congress of the Republic, 35% of whom are controlled by paramilitaries, when they prorogued lay 418 of 1997, eliminated the previous recognition of the political status of illegal groups that is the sine qua non of this type of dialogues.  Thus the judicial tool exists: the dialogues are occurring on a legal basis.  But this is a spurious basis, proposed by a group of criminals to favor the irregular action of another group of criminals.  Or is it the same group of criminals?  Because each day, the evidence builds that the organization that governs Colombia is a single, closed, monolithic one.

For months, the process used by the administration to bring Castano's murderers into power over the society has been repeated over and over again.  As a result I don't believe it is necessary to repeat what happened in Comuna 13 of Medellin (5); or the speeches given by Uribe last September, when he handed over command to the new Commander of the Armed Forces (6); or the obstruction of justice by the Attorney General in the investigation of the Chengue massacre; or the handing over of the files against General Millan to the military justice system; or the meetings that Mancuso and his people held with Londono (7) at the Club El Nogal, etc. etc.  But it does seem important to me to mention two very recent examples.

One.  On March 15 2003, the Departmental Association of Campesinos of Arauca lamented that the army had presented as 'a confrontation with paramilitaries' what was in fact a massacre of civilians in that part of the country.  "We reject this version", their communique says, "because what is happening in the zones are confrontations between the army and the guerrillas, and in this confrontation a large number of civilians have been massacred, after which it has been claimed that they were paramilitaries."  The process is clear.  The army is not ready to fight against its natural allies, so once it has been decided that the land is to pass into the hands of narcotraffickers, it launches an offensive against victims who have nothing to do with the conflict.  The result is then presented with language that the country wants to hear.  "Twenty paramilitaries killed", or "40 paramilitaries brought down," "The struggle against paramilitarism advances."  What paramilitaries?  What struggle is advancing?  Because what we have here is a very coarse disguise of a very loud and distinct reality.  The government is not in the hands of paramilitaries.  The government is paramilitary.  Paramilitary for paramilitaries.  The president of the republic is Castano.  Uribe just represents him in official ceremonies.  Because it is known that Castano's killers and the country's soldiers share food, table, and housing in various parts of the country, and that one of the possible solutions being discussed in the 'dialogues' is integrating the two 'armies' in one big group of regular troops.  This would be good, the members of the perfumed Bogota ghetto believe, because Castano is the only one who has been able to show tangible results against the guerrillas.  With cocktails raised, the gilded gentlemen of the Jockey Club consider him the authentic Liberator of Uraba (Del Rio is just the 'Pacifier') and the soon-to-be savior of Arauca and Choco.  That Tirofijo and his people are on their way out (8).  Are the haciendas of Cordoba, including those of this fine gentleman who lives in the Presidential Palace, not an example of productive efficiency?  Is the Magdalena Medio not a land of peace today?  Let us not tell lies: the 'Commander', Castano, is the real president of the republic and his military strategies cause admiration in generals who have been unable to win even a battle against cholesterol.  The legendary battles of La Rochela, La Chinita, Chengue, Mapiripan and Mejor Esquina belong not in a military manual but in an epic, comparable only to Attila the Hun and his killers.  Because there too the idea was extermination.  For who?  Against who?  The answer is unequivocal: Colombia is being tortured by these killers.  And nobody, absolutely nobody, is immune.  Granting high levels of popularity to an inept government, Colombians are accomplices in our own disgrace.   And the 'international community' has sent its own toy soldier onto the battle field: Colombia needs to join the 'fight' against 'terrorism'.  Well, yes, if one has to struggle against terrorism, you should know that Colombia terrorism is state terrorism, that the aggression comes from above, and those who call stridently for international solidarity against this savagery are the very savages who kill, massacre, steal and displace.

And two.  In the impressive recording transcribed by the magazine Cambio this week, of a conversation between general Jaime Alberto Uscategui, the principal accused in the Mapiripan massacre, the official is heard telling his interlocutor:

"The trial has proven what we have always denied, and that is the link between the military and the paramilitaries."  Next, he describes that he has 300 documents, taken by technically sophisticated methods from the computer of the Paris Battalion.  "The pamphlets that the paramilitaries brought to the Mapiripan massacre were made on this computer at the Paris Battalion.  The same was done with the pamphlets brought 8 months later to Puerto Alvira, a municipality of Mapiripan... the rules and regulations of Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia were prepared on this computer.  For example, some of the disciplinary codes for the Armed Forces were modified by changing the parts that said 'Armed Forces' and replacing them with 'For the members of Auc'.  On this computer the password, the communications code for the chief of the paramilitaries who acted in Mapiripan, a retired military officer who came from Uraba.  The planes that transported the cargo of the paramilitaries left from the Los Cedros airport in Uraba and the Necocli airport.  In one of them came the paras, in the other the cargo.  The declarations of the police, hidden in the process, say that the paramilitaries left escorted by the army, which is to say that the link with the paramilitaries was not just in Guaviare, but it comes from Uraba... the payroll documents and schedules are on this computer, the names of the entire Guaviare front of AUC, 93 men and women with their aliases, jobs, and covers.  The threats to the prosecutor Virgilio Hernandez Castellanos demanding that he suspend the investigation, and if he doesn't his family tree will be wiped off the map.  Threats against Alfonso Gomez Mendez; to ranchers; extorsions to the Rodriguez Orejuela thanking them for the money they had provided.  Any single one of these documents reaching the media would cause a scandal...  What did Mobile Unit 2 do?  A giant operation blasted the FARC and provided cover for the paras to escape.  This is serious and it's a secret.  When I told him all this, general Mora went blue and I told him: look, dear General, what I told you can be proven.  What is the FARC going to say when I go to the supreme court and say - look, the army doesn't just have links, it doesn't just not fight them, it fights against FARC so as to save the paramilitaries from them?"

"Any one of these documents would cause a scandal if it reached the media," says Uscategui.  Well, here they are, in the hands of the media.  On April 20, when the ex-officer goes to trial (9), the country will have a clearer vision of the cancer that corrodes it.  There is no struggle between three actors here.  There are two actors: narcoparamilitarism, which has come to power with Alvaro Uribe, and the narcoguerrilla, which, to be clear, also deserves denunciation.  The tragic situation that is torturing Colombia obliges us to call bread bread and wine wine.  Maybe an absurd trial, like the one that absolved Del Rio, can help us to untie this knot.

1) Colombia's paramilitary organization, responsible for hundreds of massacres, assassinations, kidnappings, and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people.

2) Colombia's main guerrilla group.

3) A human rights organization.

4) A 'Tutela' is a special protection provided by the Colombian constitution where citizens can appeal to the state for rapid response if their constitutional rights are being violated.  See Hector Mondragon's piece on 'Colombia Today' for some more detail on 'Tutela'.

5) A high profile paramilitary 'demobilization' took place as part of 'dialogues' between the government and the paramilitaries.  The 'demobilized' paramilitaries recommenced committing assassinations as normal days later.

6) Uribe talked about the need to 'exterminate' the guerrillas.  There was even a military operation called 'Operation Holocaust' shortly afterwards.

7) Londono was, at the time, the Minister of the Interior.

8) Tirofijo is the nickname of Manuel Marulanda, commander of FARC.

9) Uscategui was absolved.