NotiSur, 09/14/01 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit [Private reading copy for your personal use only. Redistribution is not permitted under the terms of our LADB subscription.] ------------------------------------------------------------ L A T I N A M E R I C A D A T A B A S E NotiSur - South American Political & Economic Affairs ISSN 1060-4189 Volume 11, Number 34 September 14, 2001 ------------------------------------------------------------ Copyright 2001, Latin America Data Base (LADB), Latin American Institute, University of New Mexico Director: Rebecca Reynolds Bannister Editor: Patricia Hynds Staff writers: Carlos Navarro, Robert Sandels LADB ARCHIVES: Back issues are referenced to provide historical background relevant to the articles in this newsletter. These can be accessed with a subscription to the LADB searchable on-line archives at http://ladb.unm.edu/ by clicking on Search Archive. For subscription information, e-mail info@ladb.unm.edu or call 1-800-472-0888. In This Issue: COLOMBIA: U.S. PUTS COLOMBIAN PARAMILITARY ORGANIZATION ON TERRORIST LIST * Designation has ramifications for AUC backers in US * AUC Web site announces political organization MEMBERS OF ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES SIGN DECLARATION SUPPORTING DEMOCRACY * Finding consensus from diverse opinions was difficult * Measure passed unanimously * Toledo repeats his call to reduce military spending VENEZUELA: PRESIDENT HUGO CHAVEZ TAKES FIRST STEP TOWARD AGRARIAN REFORM * Chavez finds few solutions to social problems ____________________________________________________________ ********************* COLOMBIA ********************* COLOMBIA: U.S. PUTS COLOMBIAN PARAMILITARY ORGANIZATION ON TERRORIST LIST The administration of US President George W. Bush placed the Colombian paramilitary group Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC) on its list of terrorist organizations. The action was taken Sept. 10, ahead of Secretary of State Colin Powell's trip to Latin America, which was cut short by the attacks in New York and Washington, DC. The notice in the Federal Register, a daily publication of US government regulations, said the AUC had been designated a "foreign terrorist organization." In all, 31 groups, including the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) and the Ejercito de Liberacion Nacional (ELN) of Colombia, are designated foreign terrorist groups. The announcement reflects growing US concern about the 8,000-strong AUC, which has become a major force in the Colombian conflict and an obstacle to the peace talks between the Colombian government and rebels. A statement by Powell said the designation was based on "an exhaustive review of the AUC's violent activities over the past two years." "I hope this will leave no doubt that the United States considers terrorism to be unacceptable, regardless of the political or ideological purpose," said Powell's statement. "We also stand with the government of Colombia against the threats to its democracy from these terrorist groups." The statement said the AUC has carried out numerous acts of terrorism, including the massacre of hundreds of civilians, the forced displacement of entire villages, and the kidnapping of political figures. The State Department's latest report on global terrorism, released April 30, cited information from the Colombian police affirming that the AUC had carried out 804 assassinations, 204 kidnappings, and 75 massacres with 507 victims in the first 10 months of 2000. AUC militias are also blamed for a large percentage of the 40,000 killings of civilians in Colombia in the last decade. The report said the AUC was supported by economic elites, drug traffickers, and local communities. Some former Colombian military personnel are known to be AUC members. The paramilitary bands frequently drag unarmed villagers from their homes, accuse them of supporting the guerrillas, and publicly execute them. In one massacre this year, officials said the AUC used chain saws on its victims. State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said the AUC was "increasingly collaborating with narcotraffickers." When Powell meets with Colombian leaders, said Reeker, he will underscore the need for the government to improve its human rights record "in terms of severing all ties between security forces and paramilitary groups." The AUC recently sent an email to US Ambassador Anne Patterson arguing strongly that the group should not be designated as a terrorist group and saying that it had never attacked US targets or citizens. Colombia's Interior Minister Armando Estrada Villa said his government supports the US designation and is convinced "that when the US takes such a step it is because it has convincing arguments to support it." Designation has ramifications for AUC backers in US The designation requires US financial institutions to block the AUC's assets and makes it illegal to support the group financially. Under the law, members of designated terrorist groups can be denied US visas, and individuals or groups believed to fund such groups can be arrested in the US and their assets can be seized by US authorities. US government officials have long maintained that wealthy Colombians living in the US are helping finance the AUC, and Colombian prosecutors investigating AUC finances have said they have some evidence of AUC connections in Miami. "Some of the people who finance AUC have interests all over Latin America and probably the United States," said Robin Kirk, a Colombia specialist at Human Rights Watch (HRW). "This may send a very strong warning to such people that they and their assets are more at risk than ever from some kind of US action." Kirk called the move a "positive step," one human rights organizations had been urging Washington to take for several years as the death toll from AUC operations grew. For years, human rights groups in Colombia and the US have documented the complicity between the Colombian armed forces and the AUC. The government of President Andres Pastrana says it has arrested dozens of AUC members, killed some in combat, and dismissed several generals with alleged paramilitary connections. But despite Pastrana's efforts to cut links between the military and paramilitaries, Kirk said "collaboration remains rampant." With Democrats now in control of the US Senate, concern about the relationship between the AUC and the Colombian military has grown, especially with the increased awareness that the AUC is at least as much involved in drug trafficking as are the guerrillas. The AUC says that it receives about 70% of its revenues from the drug trade. Some US legislators are concerned that the Colombian armed forces are providing the AUC with training and equipment received from the US under Plan Colombia for fighting drug trafficking. Sens. Paul Wellstone (D-MN) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA) wrote Powell in early September to say they "remain deeply troubled by the...close links between members of the Colombian military and illegal paramilitary groups." AUC Web site announces political organization The AUC announced on its Web site in early September that it was launching a political movement to back up its military offensive. The AUC said its new Democratic and National Movement wanted "political recognition" from the Colombian government and the international community and demanded to be included in peace talks between the government and the FARC, which have been going on for almost three years. "We were born out of war to end war, we come together in politics to dignify politics and make peace possible," the announcement read, detailing an 11-point political agenda but not identifying any of the political movement's leaders. A few months ago, longtime AUC military commander Carlos Castano stepped aside to assume leadership of a new "political command." He was replaced by hard-liner Salvatore Mancuso, who reportedly supports attacking government installations if the military and police continue their crackdown on the AUC (see NotiSur, 2001-06-08). In an interview published in early September in Colombian news magazine Cambio, Mancuso said the AUC does not kill innocent people. "Our policy has always been to identify and separate out guerrillas disguised as civilians from the honest and hardworking people," he said. A December Gallup poll showed about 10% of Colombians had a positive impression of the AUC. In rural areas, landowners and business people often see the AUC as the lesser of two evils. While few Colombians say they support the AUC, discouragement is widespread regarding the lack of progress in the peace talks with the guerrillas. Leading candidates in next May's presidential elections are calling for a harder government line in negotiations with the rebels. [Sources: Reuters, 09/06/01, 09/10/01; CNN, Inter Press Service, Notimex, Spanish news service EFE, 09/10/01; Associated Press, 08/30/01, 09/10/01, 09/11/01; La Opinion (Los Angeles), The Miami Herald, The New York Times, 09/11/01] ********************* GENERAL ********************* MEMBERS OF ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES SIGN DECLARATION SUPPORTING DEMOCRACY Members of the Organization of American States (OAS), meeting in Lima, Peru, signed the Inter-American Democratic Charter on Sept. 11. The special meeting was cut short by the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon near Washington, DC, which prompted US Secretary of State Colin Powell to cancel his planned visits to Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela. Powell and 33 foreign ministers and ambassadors came together in Lima for a two-day OAS meeting on democracy. The purpose was to sign a hemispheric pact to defend against civilian leaders who, once elected, thwart democracy with measures such as dissolving legislatures, rewriting constitutions, interfering with courts, and using coercion to perpetuate power. "We're essentially putting down membership rules," Powell told reporters shortly before landing in Lima. "If you want to be a democratic nation in this hemisphere, the charter will serve as a guide to how the other democratic nations expect you to behave and what the standards are with respect to elections and representative government." Peru proposed drafting the charter to protect the region's democracies from assaults by "disguised dictatorships" in April, just months after the ten-year rule of former President Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000) collapsed in a corruption scandal. The OAS charter provides for suspension of a member country "whose democratically constituted government has been overthrown by force." But it does not address the problem of an elected leader who subverts a country's democratic institutions. "Fujimori installed a fictional democracy in Peru," said former Peruvian President Valentin Paniagua, whose interim government proposed the charter. "Although Peru is not the only example, it most clearly demonstrates that democracies can be perverted from within," said Peruvian Foreign Minister Diego Garcia Sayan. He said the OAS's tolerance of Fujimori's assaults on democratic rule "made clear the weakness of the response of the inter-American system." Garcia Sayan said civilian leaders trying to emulate Fujimori pose a greater danger to Latin American democracies than do military coups. Finding consensus from diverse opinions was difficult Enacting the agreement was not easy. It was blocked at the OAS meeting in Costa Rica in June by several nations concerned about committing to a binding definition of representative democracy. The strongest opposition came from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who wanted the document to recognize the legitimacy of participatory democracy (see NotiSur, 2001-08-31). Some delegates voiced concern that, in the effort to find language that all countries would sign, the charter had been watered down too much. The original draft called for suspension from the OAS of countries that carried out "any" unconstitutional interruption or alteration of democratic rule. The final document calls for censure for an act that "seriously impairs" the democratic order in a member state "while it persists." The charter allows the OAS to suspend countries where coups have occurred, but it does not contemplate economic sanctions. "This is a kind of storm door against authoritarian temptations," said Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge Castaneda. But the threat remains of "an elected president taking office and then undermining all the other institutions of the government and the press and essentially carrying out his own silent, slow-motion coup," said former US ambassador to Peru Dennis Jett. The charter also recognizes that the struggle against poverty, especially the elimination of critical poverty, is fundamental for promoting and consolidating democracy. It says that the values and principles of freedom, equality, and social justice are intrinsic to democracy, and it recognizes the importance of developing and strengthening human rights for the consolidation of democracy. Measure passed unanimously Powell was notified of the events in the US just before the OAS session began. Powell urged the delegates to pass the charter as a clear, collective message against terrorism. "A terrible, terrible tragedy has befallen my nation, but it has befallen all those who believe in democracy," Powell told the OAS assembly. "I hope we can move the order of business to the adoption of the charter, because I very much want to be here to express the United States' commitment to democracy in this hemisphere." The charter was adopted unanimously, and Powell immediately left to fly back to Washington. This was Powell's first official visit to Latin America since becoming secretary of state. The crisis in the Middle East prompted him to cancel a scheduled trip to Costa Rica in June. Latin American ambassadors in Washington have complained that the Bush administration has neglected the region. It has been slow to fill key policy posts on Latin America. Several appointees and nominees are very controversial, both in Latin America and in the US. Among those is Cuban-born Otto Reich, Bush's nominee for assistant secretary of state to the region, who has yet to be confirmed and who is seen by critics as a right-wing ideologue. Other controversial figures in the Bush administration's lineup include Elliot Abrams, assistant secretary of state during the US-backed contra war in the 1980s, and John D. Negroponte, ambassador to Honduras during same period. Abrams has been appointed to the National Security Council as senior director for democracy, human rights, and international operations, and Negroponte has been nominated as UN ambassador. On the aborted trip, Powell was expected to hear complaints that Washington is ignoring problems that include the foreign debt crisis in Argentina, famine in Central America, and a dramatic loss of faith in democracy around the region. In his scheduled visits, Powell was expected to try to reverse the impression that for this administration, Latin America only extends to Mexico. Toledo repeats his call to reduce military spending In Peru, President Alejandro Toledo asked Powell for the US government to resume drug flights, part of the Programa Peruano-Norteamericano de Interdiccion, suspended following the downing of a plane with US missioners aboard in the Peruvian jungle on April 20 (see NotiSur, 2001-05-18). Toledo proposed an alliance between the coca-producing and cocaine-consuming countries to fight drug trafficking. He said the alliance must focus on substituting other crops for coca, but without the use of chemical spraying. In his speech to the OAS delegates, Toledo repeated a frequent complaint that the countries of the region continue to put enormous amounts of their scarce resources into military expenditures. He pointed out that it costs 64 times more to educate a soldier than to educate a child, the cost of a tank could provide 520 classrooms, and the price of a supersonic fighter plane could build 40,000 health clinics. Toledo called on the countries of Latin America to increase their social investment, since, he said, "poverty is conspiring against democracy." He said the representatives should ask their governments to stop spending money on arms and put that money into education and, in that way, "win the war against poverty." [Source: The Miami Herald, 09/10/01; Notimex, 09/07/01, 09/11/01; Associated Press, 09/08/01, 09/10/01, 09/11/01; CNN, Spanish news service EFE, Reuters, 09/10/01, 09/11/01; La Opinion (Los Angeles, 09/11/01] ********************* VENEZUELA ********************* VENEZUELA: PRESIDENT HUGO CHAVEZ TAKES FIRST STEP TOWARD AGRARIAN REFORM Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has taken the first step toward a radical agrarian reform, which could involve confiscating idle lands. Chavez also announced on Sept. 8 that he would resurrect the Ministry of Agriculture "to give greater importance and weight to agricultural development in the country. "I have decided to create a new ministry, that of agriculture," said Chavez at a public function in the western state of Zulia, on the border with Colombia, during which he gave credits and land titles to small rural producers. Chavez abolished the Ministry of Agriculture in 1999, folding it into the Ministry of Production and Commerce (see NotiSur, 1999-08-27). During his lengthy speech, Chavez also said he would soon decree a new Land Law (Ley de Tierras) through the special powers granted him by the Asamblea Nacional last October, which are set to expire Nov. 13. He said idle lands would be taxed and property titles the government gave to small producers would be revoked if the lands were not put into production. The goal is "to transform idle lands into productive lands," said Chavez. Chavez said the new legislation would establish a land classification system, which would determine which lands would be affected. In some cases, lands could be expropriated. "Today's act is a step toward the implementation of the Law of Lands and Rural Development by the revolution, so there can finally be justice in the distribution and use of land," said Chavez during the ceremony to award titles for some 42,000 hectares of property held by the Instituto Agrario Nacional. Chavez called on large landowners who have idle land to voluntarily turn it over to the state, adding that, if they do not, they will find themselves on the wrong side of the law. He said land in rural Venezuela must once again become productive. Much agricultural production in rural Venezuela was abandoned with the arrival of the oil boom in the mid-1900s. Noting that insufficient funding undermined previous agrarian reform attempts in Venezuela, Chavez said his government would provide loans and technical assistance to new farmers. As part of his "vast strategic plan" to develop the central region of the country, Chavez also announced plans to build a new city south of Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela's western oil hub, where the government hopes to resettle the poor from the hillside slums in Caracas. "We must eliminate these large estates that have accumulated land and which now are mostly idle, underused, and in which nothing is invested," Chavez said in June. In their place, he said, the government would promote "population development centers." Chavez finds few solutions to social problems Since before his election, Chavez has called for a peaceful revolution, which would benefit the vast majority of Venezuelans who live in poverty. Nearly two years after the election, however, and despite strong popular support, the president has had few successes. Thousands of frustrated and desperate squatters have built shacks on private lands throughout Venezuela, increasing the pressure on the president to respond. Analysts say the squatters have been encouraged by Chavez's frequent denunciations of the landholding elite and by the failure of the earlier land-reform program to broaden land ownership. A 1998 census showed that 60% of Venezuela's rural land is owned by less than 1% of the population. The same survey showed that, of about 115,000 sq km given campesinos under a 1961 land reform, nearly 90% of it eventually ended up back in the hands of large landholders. "The economic crisis that has affected the farming sector for decades has forced most of these lands to pass into the hands of those who weren't supposed to benefit," said Gen. Wilfredo Silva, president of the Instituto Agrario Nacional. "We have our suspicions about the legality of the titles that these new owners have." Jose Luis Betancourt, president of the Asociacion Nacional de Ganaderos, is concerned that Chavez could "ignore our right to property with the excuse that idle lands will be expropriated, or have restrictions placed on their use, while doing nothing to stop the invasions." He said, "There is no state of law or judicial security in this country. It doesn't matter to them that they are decapitalizing an important economic sector." Other critics of Chavez's government have said his political agenda, including the land law, has deterred investment, raising unemployment and violent crime. Venezuela is enjoying high oil prices and one of Latin America's healthiest growth rates. GDP growth was 3.2% in 2000, unemployment is down from 15% in December to 13% in August, and inflation is projected to end the year at 10%, a 15-year low. But the president's inflammatory speeches may be adding to the country's problems, say his critics, especially in contributing to capital flight. They say the president's threats to confiscate idle property and punish financial speculators have prompted many Venezuelans to change their bolivares into dollars and put them in foreign accounts. As individuals and companies, fearing possible exchange controls, have transferred funds overseas, international reserves have been reduced by nearly US$1 billion a month. [Sources: Associated Press, 08/12/01; CNN, 09/04/01; El Nuevo Herald (Miami), Notimex, 09/05/01; Reuters, 09/05/01, 09/07/01, 09/08/01; Spanish news service EFE, 09/08/01] ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= pvtsa-09.13.01-22:53:14-2843