December 10, 2001

A Tolerance for Paramilitaries?

by Martin Dayani

A United Nations special representative for human rights has made scathing comments about the Colombian government's tolerance of right-wing paramilitary militias. During a recent fact-finding visit to Bogotá, Hila Jilani called the country's human rights situation "very serious," adding that there is "almost complete impunity" in cases of human rights violations. "There is a high level of tolerance toward the paramilitaries, and there are incidents that would seem to indicate negligence and collusion on the part of the security forces," she added.

For years, Colombian security forces have been accused of active or passive collaboration with illegal right-wing paramilitary forces, which routinely massacre civilians accused of sympathizing with or supporting left wing guerrillas. Colombian governments are accustomed to shaking off such criticism by the United Nations and international human rights groups, but this time doubt was cast on the judicial system's autonomy in handling human rights abuses.

"The Public Prosecutor's Office is the weakest link in this chain, and I am frankly worried about its ability to continue investigations with the independence of the previous administration," Jilani said. Her comments were seen as a direct criticism of Luis Camilo Osorio, who recently became director of the Public Prosecutor's Office, which is charged with apprehending suspects and carrying out criminal investigations. Jilani's comments reflected widely expressed concern that the Public Prosecutor's Office has become politicized. Osorio has also been criticized for allegedly intervening in high-profile cases and making decisions favoring close associates of President Andrés Pastrana.

Jilani also criticized the lack of protection for human rights activists, dozens of whom have been assassinated over the past few years. She pointed out that military commanders have linked human rights workers to leftist guerrilla groups and that intelligence agencies routinely monitor human rights activists. Journalists and labor leaders have also been targeted in Colombia's ongoing internal conflict. Senior government officials rejected Jilani's criticism. "You have to take into account the complexities of the situation that the country faces," Defense Minister Gustavo Bell said.

The Pastrana administration claims it has taken unprecedented measures against the paramilitary United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), purging the armed forces of members suspected of collaborating with paramilitary groups. The army also insists that it is committed to combating paramilitaries as well as leftist guerrillas. The security forces are keen to publicize their confrontations with AUC squads and regularly release statistics on the numbers of paramilitaries killed or captured.

While Pastrana insists that the opposition to paramilitaries is not due to external pressure, eliminating government ties to paramilitary groups is key to his relationship with the United States. When President Ernesto Samper (1994-98) was in office, the country was blacklisted by Washington and widely seen as tolerating powerful drug trafficking cartels. The U.S. government even revoked Samper's travel visa after it became clear that his election campaign was financed by the Cali cocaine cartel.

That has changed under Pastrana. Last year, the U.S. Congress approved the initial $1.3 billion in funding for Plan Colombia, a massive program to eradicate drug trafficking through the aerial spraying of illicit crops and military offensives in drug producing zones. Colombia is now the third-largest recipient of U.S. military aid, after Israel and Egypt (see, Plan Colombia: A Closer Look).

But U.S. officials have said that continued military aid depends on improving Colombia's human rights record and taking steps to combat the AUC. Earlier this year, U.S.-based Human Rights Watch reported links between paramilitaries and at least half of the Colombian army's 18 brigades.

Colombian officials, while recognizing that problems remain, insist that most foreign observers do not fully comprehend the nature of the conflict and oversimplify their analysis. "The situation on the ground is very complex," one military official said. "There are no institutional links between the armed forces and the illegal AUC, although some regional commanders may occasionally collaborate with them actively or passively. We do not tolerate these links, however, and have taken real and far-reaching steps to put an end to them."

Security forces also deny that they tolerate paramilitary activities. "Critics claim that we are tolerant of those groups because we fail to prevent their actions and the massacres that they commit around the country. If this were true, however, you could also say that we tolerate the continuous violent actions by guerrilla groups such as the FARC and ELN," the official said, referring to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and National Liberation Army (ELN), the country's two major guerrilla groups. "We simply do not have the manpower or resources to have a permanent presence in all regions of the country."

Colombian officials say it would be counterproductive for the United States to reduce military aid as punishment for the alleged links to paramilitary groups. Pastrana has said that the best way to counter right-wing militias would be to increase military aid. But Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have documented notorious cases in which local army commanders apparently knew of planned massacres and took no action. In other cases, army forces are accused of actively supplying logistical aid to local paramilitary networks. In the 1997 Mapiripán massacre, local army battalions were accused of allowing heavily armed death squads to use the local airstrip. The paramilitaries, who were in the town for five days, hacked nearly 40 people to death (see, The Massacre at Mapiripán).

In February, retired army General Jaime Humberto Uscátegui was sentenced to 40 months in prison for not taking steps to prevent the massacre. Human Rights Watch said the sentence was "too light." Some local analysts have argued that paramilitaries are the "inevitable result" of the conflict. "People are genuinely angry at the state's inability to counter the guerrillas' actions," Bogotá political analyst Enrique Serrano said. "There is strong support for the AUC in many regions of the country, and they are growing faster than the leftist guerrillas. People are tired of the guerrillas, who have increased kidnappings and extortion of individuals and businesses, and they see the paramilitaries as the only solution."

Paramilitary forces date back to the late 1970s and early 1980s, when newly powerful drug barons began to finance private armies to protect themselves and their assets from the guerrillas. In some parts of the country, the government also promoted armed "self-defense" groups to protect communities from the guerrillas. Presidential candidate Alvaro Uribe encouraged this policy when he was governor of northwestern Antioquia province. Critics have called Uribe the "father of the paramilitaries," although he has argued that the groups were legal.

Over the past two years, the AUC, which has become an umbrella organization for paramilitary units throughout the country, has grown rapidly and launched offensives into regions that were traditionally considered FARC and ELN strongholds. The movement is now estimated to have 5,000 to 7,000 combatants, up from 2,000 only a few years ago.

The groups are blamed for dozens of massacres of campesinos every year. Carlos Castaño, acknowledged head of the AUC for many years, has publicly acknowledged the massacres, insisting that most of the victims have been "guerrilla activists," although he concedes that the AUC have committed "some excesses." It was recently announced that Castaño had stepped down as the AUC's military commander and now heads the movement's new political wing.

While there have been rumors of divisions in the AUC command structure, much remains unclear. Some reports suggest that AUC hardliners opposed Castaño's "timid" stand and favored reprisals against the government after troops were ordered into Montería, in northwestern Colombia, to raid ranches and assets of suspected paramilitary leaders and sympathizers. Montería and other ranching towns in the area are regarded as bastions of AUC support. Pastrana has pledged to pursue the people who finance paramilitary groups.

The next government will have to decide whether to negotiate with the paramilitaries. The FARC and ELN, which consider the units another facet of government forces, strongly oppose bargaining with the AUC. Anne Patterson, U.S. ambassador to Colombia, recently announced that her country would cancel the visas of Colombians suspected of collaborating with the AUC. Earlier this year, the U.S. State Department included the AUC on its list of international terrorist organizations and said it would block bank accounts linked to the group.

The United States also views the AUC, as well as the FARC and ELN, as drug trafficking organizations because of their known links to the trade. Castaño has admitted that his organization profits from drug production, as do the guerrillas. "Drug production is the water we all drink," Castaño said recently. And Colombian officials, convinced that drug production and trafficking provides the funds that fuel the country's decades-old conflict, are determined to wipe out the trade.

This article previously appeared in Latinamerica Press. It can also be found in Spanish at Noticias Aliadas.

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