Paramilitary Terror in Colombia

The United States has been involved in Colombian paramilitary forces since 1962 in Colombia. The first paramilitary group included 60 men in Bogotá who spread out from the city to attack liberals and leftist organizers. This group of paramilitaries received training at the School of the Americas, in Fort Benning, Georgia. According to recently declassified documents, U.S. General William Yarborough helped to initially organize the Colombian paramilitary and teach them military and terrorist tactics.

Later in the 1980´s, a revitalized second wave of paramilitarism in Colombia began. Both waves have forcibly and ideologically attacked any opposition to the right wing governments. In 1999, the modern Colombian paramilitary formalized its structure into the AUC (United Self-Defenses of Colombia) in Magdalena. Today, as part of the extralegal military arm of imperialism, the paramilitary works closely with the Colombian government to help multi-national corporations maximize profit and steal capital and resources. The paramilitary’s role in imposing imperialism is to suppress dissent, basic human rights, and social organizing. This is achieved through threats, assassinations, “disappearances,” massacres, and infiltration of social organizations.

Since 2000, the U.S. has given the Colombian government approximately $5 billion in military aid, some of which funds the paramilitary forces. In 2005, President Uribe (of the National Social Union Party) signed the "Justice and Peace" law. This law granted amnesty to 193 paramilitary members and prevented their persecution for countless human rights violations. This same amnesty deal, however, was not extended to the armed guerilla resistance, proving the obvious government favoritism of paramilitary. Though Uribe wants the international community to believe that most paramilitary forces are disbanded because of his "Justice and Peace" law, the recently brutalized campesinos and workers are proof that paramilitaries continue to operate and terrorize the Colombian people. In fact, it seems this new law has simply encouraged the paramilitaries to continue their brutal campaign.

Activists Oppose Terror

One of the main groups organizing for social justice in Colombia is FENSUAGRO, the national peasant organization. FENSUAGRO demands basic human rights to life, potable water, and freedom to choose where they live. They denounce government fumigation of crops as a policy that starves farming families, destroys legal crops, disrupts and pollutes the ecosystem, and fails to reduce illicit crop production. FENSUAGRO also unites Afro-Colombians, indigenous peoples, and campesinos in protest of their inhumane living conditions forced upon them by the government. For these reasons, FENSUAGRO has become a target of the Colombian government, and therefore a target of the paramilitary.

The lives of all of the 100+ FENSUAGRO leaders have been threatened by paramilitaries, and some have been killed. Hubert, the Vice-President of FENSUAGRO's National Committee and Head of International Affairs, has received multiple death threats via letters and phone calls. As a result, he is forced to move from city to city to avoid being assassinated by paramilitaries.

Another FENSUAGRO leader, Victor Julio Garzon, was the General Secretary in 1997 when he was assassinated by 2 paramilitary operatives. He was forced to his knees and shot in the back of the head just 2 feet outside the national FENSUAGRO office. More recently, Miguel Angel Bogadilla Prada, FENSUAGRO National Executive and Head of Education, Culture, and Youth, was kidnapped in May of 2006. He is still being detained, along with his wife. They have a 16-year old and a 20-month old.

While we were staying in Popayan, the paramilitary forces had sent a death threat to all students and student groups at the University of Cauca in Popayan who opposed the government in any way or who demonstrated for basic rights. Also, on July 18th, the day we flew to Pasto in the southwest corner of the country, a large paramilitary force left Cartagena (a northern department) down a main highway past at least 2 police checkpoints and multiple military soldiers. The paramilitaries continued to Vegas, a small town about 100 miles from Pasto, and murdered and buried a yet-unknown number of civilians, likely activists demanding their basic rights. Clearly, the government and the paramilitary forces are intricately connected, as is the U.S. government to the Colombian government.

Violent Displacement in the Countryside

Our delegation had the opportunity to hear the tragic stories of paramilitary terror directly from the workers and campesinos. One particularly horrific event was the massacre of over 1400 poverty-stricken peoples near Cauca, who had been buried in the river nearby. The numbers were estimated by counting the lifeless, beheaded bodies floating atop of the river. Paramilitary forces have also gone so far to not only behead, but cut them vertically through the torso, so they will not float. These brutal executions prohibit an accurate body count by officials, as well as contribute to their unidentification.

Another story includes the massacre at Ria Naya, where over 120 campesinos were killed in March and April of 2001. During which guerilla forces engaged the paramilitaries in combat, only when the military interceded and “replaced” the barbaric paramilitary forces. The recent incident in Chocó, involving paramilitary forces infiltrating the logging unions with acts of intimidation and terror, also warranted the intercession of military forces. It is important to understand that these military forces only aggravate and contribute to the violence in these areas. Countless other personal accounts of paramilitary terrorism have plagued the countryside. All of which have laid ruin to thousands of communities of workers and campesinos.

According to a 2003 census poll, there are 12.5 million campesinos in Colombia, including 800,000 indigenous peoples. Out of the 3.5 million hectares of land that campesinos share, over 4 million of these workers have been displaced, or forced off their land through blood and fire. That is, 30% of the population is campesino workers, yet they own less than 3% of the entire land in Colombia.

Since 2000, the infamous Plan Colombia, followed by the recent pass of Plan Patriota, has allowed and even encouraged paramilitary forces to redouble their terrorist activities. Multinational corporations such as BP Amoco, Occidental, and others hire U.S. and Israeli mercenaries to carry out paramilitary death squad attacks on oil worker unions such as USO.

Similarly, in the countryside where the bulk of the war is felt, paramilitary mercenaries contract with big landowners to protect their narco-trafficking operations. They also work harmoniously with the state military, regularly targeting community activists, campesinos, and union leaders—all of whom cry out for basic human rights. SOA, the infamous School of the Americas, also contributes to the network of armed thugs who terrorize the countryside.

For us, as Americans, it is fundamentally necessary to understand that our tax dollars are used to kill innocent workers and campesinos. This is done through the paramilitary forces, which are clearly still at large today. This evidence flies in the face of Uribe’s so-called “Social Justice Plan” to provide amnesty to any paramilitary force who hands over their rifle. The ridiculous assertion that these forces are waning, or even contained in one area, is all negated by our first-hand accounts of conditions in Colombia.

We must stand together to demand an end to the violent terrorism by paramilitary forces. It is the duty of Americans to protest our government’s direct involvement in Colombian terrorism. It will not stand for the millions of workers and campesinos who are displaced or killed! Human rights, the right to life, must be guaranteed in Colombia, and all
over the world. We must stand in solidarity to fight U.S. imperialism for the welfare of the Colombian people!