NotiSur - 03/08/02 - Ecuador, Uruguay, Drug War Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit [Reminder: This is a private reading copy for your personal use only. It may not be redistributed under the terms of our subscription with LADB. Thanks -- NY Transfer] ------------------------------------------------------------ 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 12, Number 9 March 8, 2002 ------------------------------------------------------------ Copyright 2002, 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: ECUADOR: VIOLENT PROTEST IN AMAZON ENDS * Protesters say pipeline will harm health and environment * President militarizes provinces * Government and protesters reach agreement ANNUAL U.S. DRUG CERTIFICATION RAISES QUESTIONS ABOUT AID * Haiti, Afghanistan given waivers * Report praises Colombia and Mexico * Report angers Bolivia * Spraying in Colombia brings replanting in Peru * Other US agencies weigh in on drug war URUGUAY: GOVERNMENT FAILS TO ADDRESS DISAPPEARANCES DURING MILITARY DICTATORSHIP ____________________________________________________________ ********************* ECUADOR ********************* ECUADOR: VIOLENT PROTEST IN AMAZON ENDS The Ecuadoran government and local authorities from Orellana and Sucumbios provinces in the northeastern Amazon region signed an accord March 4 that ended a 10-day strike. President Gustavo Noboa had put the military in control of the provinces after protesters took over oil wells and stopped construction of a controversial pipeline. The two-province strike left at least two people dead, hundreds wounded, and dozens arrested. "We're signing an act this very moment that puts an end to the protests and the state of emergency and restores normal activity," Interior Minister Marcelo Merlo told reporters. Local authorities in the two provinces, along with campesinos and indigenous organizations, declared an indefinite strike Feb. 18. In a similar strike in February 2001, protesters demanded infrastructure projects, such as road improvements and increased electrical distribution (see NotiSur-2001-03-02). The government promised to solve the problems of both provinces, but the promises have not been kept. "We are demanding that they comply with the commitments made last year and that they promote agricultural production in the province," Gov. Luis Bermeo said in an interview with Quito radio station La Luna. Protesters say pipeline will harm health and environment After the strike commenced, protesters stopped traffic on highways and took control of more than 60 oil wells, a refinery, and government offices, stopping construction on the pipeline and hampering oil output. The 600-km pipeline will carry crude from oil fields in Sucumbios to a Pacific port in Esmeraldas province. While US$60 billion in oil has been extracted from the area in the last two decades, 90% of residents live in poverty. President Noboa says the pipeline is vital to Ecuador's economic recovery. Oil production is supposed to double once the new pipeline begins operations in 2003. Strikers want the government to press OCP Ecuador to provide US$10 million for local development programs and projects to compensate for the social and environmental damages. OCP (Oleoducto de Crudo Pesado) consortium includes Canada's Alberta Energy, Spain's Repsol-YPF, and US companies Occidental Petroleum and Kerr-McGee. Gov. Bermeo said that the pipeline will cause serious health and environmental damage while providing millions of dollars in profits to the oil companies, without even minimal compensation for the local population. A health study released in mid-February said high rates of cancer have been documented in the area. The study was carried out from 1999 to 2001 by a research team headed by Drs. Miguel San Sebastian and Anna-Karin Hurtig of the Manuel Amunarriz Institute of Epidemiology and Community Health, in Coca, the capital of Orellana province. In communities in the region, the risk of cancer is three times higher than in the rest of the country. "This confirms and expands on the results of a 1999 report, which found a high rate of cancer among indigenous communities inhabiting areas near oil wells in the provinces of Orellana and Sucumbios...," said San Sebastian. He attributed the higher incidence of cancer to the high level of contamination from toxic substances found in the area in the past 20 years, and he warned of risks from continued oil extraction without measures to protect the environment. "The level of petroleum in the rivers, on which local residents depend for daily use, is 200 to 300 times higher than the limits set for human consumption," he said. President militarizes provinces Noboa declared a state of emergency in the two provinces Feb. 22, saying that the border area had to be secured following the Colombian government's breakoff of peace talks with the insurgent Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC). However, Noboa acknowledged on Feb. 25 that the emergency declaration was an attempt to halt the protests and restore oil activity in the area. On Feb. 27, the government put the military in charge of the provincial capitals, restricted freedom of expression, and ordered Radio La Jungla closed. "One of the measures adopted by the competent authority to restore peace was to temporarily suspend transmission by Radio La Jungla for inciting the population to violence and broadcasting messages against the emergency decree," said the presidential communique. "The commander of the army's Amazonas division, Gen. Jorge Mino Vaca, is delegated as the sole authority to restore order in the area of security." The communique said "groups of demonstrators, some of them armed, provoked confrontations with the security forces, who responded to the attacks with restraint." Three other local radio stations, Stereo Cumanda, Alegria, and Municipal, received orders from the military not to broadcast information about the crackdown, said Elsie Monge, head of the Quito-based Comision Ecumenica de Derechos Humanos (CEDHU). Government and protesters reach agreement UN representatives and legislators mediated talks between the government and representatives of the two provinces in Quito, March 2-3. An agreement, signed at dawn March 4, ensures an extra 10 MW of power within 45 days for the two provinces to limit power outages and 200 km of new roads. It also provides a government cash incentive to local coffee growers to renew their crops, as well as access to up to US$5 million in credits from a state development bank for Amazon farmers. Still under discussion is the demand that OCP Ecuador provide more development funds to the area. Talks on such funds are supposed to begin in the next few days. As of March 1, state oil company Petroecuador estimated crude output losses of 224,000 barrels, valued at more than US$3.3 million, as a result of the strike. On March 5, after a complaint from the environmental group Greenpeace, the Environment Ministry temporarily suspended OCP Ecuador's license, halting construction near the Mindo protected forest and bird habitat until the company repairs environmental damage. [Sources: Spanish news service EFE, 02/28/02; Inter Press Service, 02/14/02, 02/20/02, 03/01/02; Reuters, 02/27/02, 03/04/02, 03/06/02; Notimex, 03/03/02, 03/04/02; El Comercio (Ecuador), 03/05/02, 03/07/02] ********************* GENERAL ********************* ANNUAL U.S. DRUG CERTIFICATION RAISES QUESTIONS ABOUT AID US President George W. Bush sent his yearly recommendation, along with the State Department report, to Congress Feb. 25, specifying which countries were not cooperating in the war on drugs. Haiti, Afghanistan, and Myanmar were the only countries that had "failed demonstrably to make substantial counternarcotics efforts over the last 12 months," but Haiti and Afghanistan received a "national security" waiver. As it has in the past, the unilateral certification process angered allies in Latin America and raised questions about the purpose of the exercise. Because US certification has been so controversial, the Bush memorandum was modified this year to focus on the countries that did not meet expectations, rather than evaluate each of the 23 countries on the list. "Instead of presuming everyone is bad and saying then who was good, we are only making a determination on who was bad, on who didn't do enough," Rand Beers, assistant secretary of state for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs, said at the Feb. 25 press briefing to release the report. Various international organizations, including the Organization of American States (OAS), and many members of Congress have called for eliminating the certification, saying it is ineffective and counterproductive. The process took some countries by surprise. Peru's drug czar Ricardo Vega Llona said that Peru and other Latin American countries had been under the impression that the US had agreed to replace the unilateral certification with a multilateral process (Mecanismo de Evaluacion Multilateral, MEM) through the OAS. Vega Llona said he was disappointed that the first MEM report, published in mid-January, received so little press coverage. Haiti, Afghanistan given waivers Haiti is a transshipment point rather than a drug producer. Beers said that Haiti's anti-drug performance was "weak." The government failed to enact key pieces of legislation and did not increase arrests, drug seizures, or prosecutions. However, "US vital national interests require that US assistance to Haiti continues," Beers said. Halting humanitarian aid could bring a flood of illegal Haitian immigrants to Florida. Because the Bush administration wants to strengthen the interim government in Afghanistan, it also received a waiver. The State Department report said that the Taliban's ban on opium-poppy cultivation in September 2000 reduced Afghanistan's opium production by 94% and the global supply by nearly 75%. But "opium trafficking and heroin processing continued unabated through 2001, indicating the existence of large stockpiles...." At no point, the report said, did the Taliban take steps to interrupt the opium trade. Moreover, even as cultivation decreased in Taliban- controlled areas of the country, "cultivation and opium production increased in former Northern Alliance territory," said the report. Despite that, last August, the Bush administration gave the Taliban US$43 million as a reward for reducing opium production. Since the fall of the Taliban, production has resumed in parts of the country. Beers said preliminary estimates indicate that the next harvest will produce a "substantial amount" of opium poppy, perhaps approaching the near-record levels immediately before the Taliban government banned cultivation. The State Department report said that Myanmar took some measures against drug trafficking, yet "large-scale poppy cultivation and opium production continue." Myanmar received no waiver, but since it has not received any US aid for years, the US action will have little effect. Report praises Colombia and Mexico The president gave a passing grade to Colombia and Mexico, both major producers of illegal drugs. Beers credited both with mounting effective anti-narcotics campaigns. Mexico, which has frequently criticized the certification process, made significant progress under the administration of President Vicente Fox in arresting drug traffickers and assisting interdiction efforts, Beers said. "The overall efforts of the Colombian police and military, I think, have been significant," he said. "In addition, the law enforcement cooperation between ourselves and Colombia is superior." Beers said the US would analyze the request from Colombian President Andres Pastrana for more aid. The annual estimates of drug-crop production are one gauge of the effectiveness of US anti-drug strategy. This year, the spotlight is mostly on Colombia because it is the major producer of cocaine, it has received US$1.3 billion in mostly military aid in the past two years to fight drug trafficking, and it is asking for more aid. This year's assessment follows a sustained fumigation effort carried out under Plan Colombia, which set a goal of cutting coca cultivation in half within five years. The aerial spraying is strongly opposed by local governors, campesinos, human rights groups, and environmentalists in Colombia and in neighboring countries (see NotiSur, 2001-08- 03, 2002-02-15). While Colombian officials claim dramatic reductions in the amount of coca cultivation, those claims are contradicted by other figures. The Colombian government says that total hectares of coca shrank by as much as 16.8% in the past 16 months to 134,400 ha, down from 160,800 ha in August 2000. "I don't think they are in a position to refute our figures, not scientifically or technically," Colombian Justice Minister Romulo Gonzalez said, referring to the CIA, whose annual estimates have not been released. US and UN officials involved in the eradication campaign say they expect the CIA figures to show a large increase in the coca crop last year, possibly by as much as a third. But even within the US, there is disagreement. The State Department, which manages the eradication program in Colombia, says the coca crop has stabilized or even begun falling under the stepped-up fumigation program. Report angers Bolivia Bolivia had been a leading producer of coca, but Plan Dignidad, the five-year crop-eradication campaign begun by President Hugo Banzer in 1997, has eradicated much of the targeted 40,000 ha in the Chapare region of the country. However, the military-led eradication campaign has resulted in violent confrontations with coca growers, with dozens killed and hundreds injured during the past four years (see NotiSur, 1998-08-21, 2000-02-25). US aid to Bolivia in recent years has been linked to progress in eradicating coca, but Bolivia has complained that, as its efforts succeeded, Washington turned its attention, and its financial support, to Colombia. A particularly sore point was the expiration last December of the 1991 US Andean Trade Preferences Act (ATPA), which granted lower import tariffs to Andean nations. Bolivia's economy has been in a slump the past two years and the government says it needs greater access to export markets to prevent a resurgence in coca growing. While it did not "decertify" Bolivia, the State Department said President Jorge Quiroga was "reluctant to take certain measures, such as closing 15 illicit coca markets in the Chapare and prosecuting violators who continue to grow and sell illicit coca." It also referred to coca replanting in the Chapare, where the report said coca fields had increased since 2001 (see NotiSur, 2002-02-01). President Quiroga was to open the twentieth International Drug Enforcement Conference (IDEC), held March 5-7 in Santa Cruz, 900 km east of La Paz. At the last minute, he canceled his appearance to protest the "unacceptable" US report. Anti-drug officials from 59 countries attended the event, including Asa Hutchinson, head of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which sponsors the annual conference. Foreign Minister Gustavo Fernandez told reporters Quiroga sent a formal note to the US Embassy March 3. It said that "more than 90% of the country's illegal coca has been eradicated and annual cocaine production has been reduced by 250 metric tons." It said the report's contents were "unacceptable, wrong, and mistaken." Fernandez said the note emphasized that Plan Dignidad "is a Bolivian strategy, designed by Bolivians," and that it would continue to be carried out by the Quiroga administration. Spraying in Colombia brings replanting in Peru As aerial spraying has increased in Colombia, the price of coca in Peru has doubled in recent months, making legitimate crops less appealing. In at least two river valleys, the Upper Huallaga and the Apurimac, for the first time in years, coca is making a comeback, say Peruvian and UN anti-drug officials. One high-ranking State Department official who works on drug issues said coca cultivation was now up 10% to 12% in those two regions. This underscores how quickly victories can be reversed in a "war" where traffickers can easily shift their crop across national boundaries in remote and poorly policed regions. While the reasons for the increase in Peru are complex, most experts say it is largely the "balloon effect"-- eradication in one place simply pushes coca growing to another as long as demand for cocaine, chiefly in the US, continues. "The drug mafia knew Plan Colombia would cause problems, so they began to move," said Vega Llona. "And how do they entice people to plant? By paying higher prices." Satellite maps, aerial surveillance and ground assessment by the UN Drug Control Program (UNDCP) show that the coca crop has expanded to cover about 50,000 ha in 2001, from 43,800 ha in 2000. Vega Llona agrees with those preliminary figures. US officials remain optimistic about eradication efforts in Peru, noting that anti-drug aid to Peru is tripling to about US$150 million this year, and they say the suspension of interdiction flights may be lifted later this year. "I anticipate the possibility of making great headway here in the next few years," said US Ambassador John Hamilton. Still, eradicating coca and opium poppies--also on the rise in Peru--will be made more difficult because the low prices for coffee and other legal crops give farmers few options, said Patricio Vandenberghe, UNDCP director in Peru. Neighboring Ecuador has also become an important corridor for coca paste shipped from Colombia, as well as a port for cocaine bound for the US via Pacific sea routes, said Klaus Nyholm, UNDCP director for Colombia and Ecuador. Other US agencies weigh in on drug war On Feb. 26, Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) director John P. Walters outlined the administration's drug policy to a congressional committee. It includes a request for US$731 million in aid for Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Venezuela, Brazil, and Panama in 2003, an increase of US$106 million over 2002. Walters said the ATPA, which lapsed last December, created jobs and helped many people move away from drug- related activities. The ATPA was part of the US anti-drug effort to turn Andean economies from drug production and export by exempting a number of their products from US tariffs. A version of the ATPA passed the House last fall, but stalled in the Senate. The administration says it hopes to resurrect the ATPA in a trade bill that will include trade promotion authority or "fast track" this spring. Another drug-related report released Feb. 26 by the Government Accounting Office (GAO) said US anti-drug efforts in Colombia have had little success. The report said that, despite the US$1.3 billion in aid, Colombia has become the major center for growing coca and the major cocaine producer in the world--providing 80% of what is consumed in the US. Among the obstacles to success, "the Colombian government does not control many coca-growing areas, it has limited capacity to carry out sustained interdiction operations, and its ability to effectively coordinate eradication and alternative development activities remains uncertain." The GAO report said, "We also suggest that the Congress consider requiring that USAID demonstrate measurable progress in its current efforts to reduce coca cultivation in Colombia before any additional funding is provided for alternative development." [Sources: Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, 02/26/02; Spanish news service EFE, 02/25-27/02; The New York Times, 02/14/02, 03/01/02; El Nuevo Herald (Miami), 02/16/02, 03/02/02; La Opinion (Los Angeles), Notimex, 03/02/02; Associated Press, 02/26-28/02, 03/03/02; Reuters, 03/04/02] ********************* URUGUAY ********************* URUGUAY: GOVERNMENT FAILS TO ADDRESS DISAPPEARANCES DURING MILITARY DICTATORSHIP [The following article by Samuel Blixen is reprinted with the permission of Noticias Aliadas in Lima, Peru. It first appeared in the Feb. 25, 2002, edition of Latinamerica Press.] As he reaches the end of his second year in office, Uruguayan President Jorge Batlle seems unable to establish a forthright policy on human rights--a promise that gained him popular support when he made it upon taking office in March 2000. The president had pledged to seek a "state of soul" that would favor peace and reconciliation (see NotiSur, 2000- 03-03). Presidential directives aimed at revealing the truth about the cases of nearly 200 people who disappeared between 1973 and 1985 collapsed at the end of the year, when Lt. Gen. Carlos Daners, chief of the army, said, "The army will not ask forgiveness for anything it did. It also has no more information to provide; there are no graves of the disappeared." Daners' statements undermined the Peace Commission established in August 2000 by Batlle to locate the remains of people who had disappeared and close a 17-year chapter in Uruguay's history. One commission member, the Rev. Jorge Osorio, made no effort to hide his discontent. "The conclusions that the Peace Commission is reaching confirm that the disappeared died from torture in police or military installations," said Osorio. "There is no doubt that there was direct participation by the army in these deeds. If this were untrue, I think President Batlle would already have withdrawn his support for the commission or dissolved it." While Batlle did not dissolve the commission, he also failed to admonish Daners. The participation of military leaders was key to the president's strategy of inviting the military to provide confidentially the information needed to locate the remains of the disappeared, under the agreement that no individuals would be held responsible. After a year and a half of work and numerous private interviews, the Peace Commission has little to show. It has not located the remains of any prisoners who disappeared in Uruguay, and it has repatriated the remains of only four Uruguayans who disappeared in Argentina. Of more than 180 cases of disappearances, the commission has shed light on 15 and hopes to clear up another 15. The information it has obtained, however, adds little to what was already known. Furthermore, its self-imposed limitations prevent it from delving into other data, including the identity of those responsible. Controversy over the commission's objectives and limitations divided relatives of the detained-disappeared and nongovernmental human rights organizations. The differences became more marked when commission spokespersons said that the disappearances that took place in Uruguay were not part of an extermination campaign, but were involuntary deaths caused by "excesses" during interrogation. This amounted to denial of Uruguayan military participation in Operation Condor, a strategy of coordinated repression among South American dictatorships in the 1970s and 1980s (see NotiSur, 1998-10-30, 2000-07-07). Batlle's initial willingness to reach a "state of soul" that would facilitate reconciliation slowly turned into a proposal for reaching the "possible truth." The need to "forgive" to attain that state of soul created many conflicts among victims' relatives and those who wanted to know the whole truth as a way of recovering the collective memory. Refusal to identify those responsible implied a pardon similar to the blanket amnesty provided by a 1986 law under which the government agreed not to investigate or punish violations. The agreement to locate the remains of the disappeared, to ease their families' pain, required that those involved give up any right to sue. Batlle, meanwhile, kept one card up his sleeve, which many considered insufficient: the right to intercede directly with the military. He did this in the case of Argentine poet Juan Gelman's granddaughter, who was born in Uruguay while her mother was a prisoner. The young woman was located shortly after Batlle took office, after the president requested information directly from the military (see NotiSur, 2000-05-12). A similar intervention in the case of Simon Riquelo, a 24-year-old who was abducted in Argentina when he was just 22 days old, was fruitless, even though at least six officers involved have been identified. "I couldn't open the doors," Batlle told Riquelo's mother, Sara Mendez. That failure, along with the lack of results from the Peace Commission's interviews with military officers, prompted suspicion that all sectors were not participating equally in building the state of soul of which Batlle had spoken. Amid deception and criticism, Daners' statement implied that the matter was closed. The president's silence in the face of the military's apparent rejection of his human rights policy was interpreted as tacit support for the military's position and the end of a shift that began some months earlier, when the Foreign Ministry rejected an Argentine judge's request for the extradition of three military and police officers allegedly involved in multiple crimes committed in Argentina. The extradition request is part of a court case being handled by Argentine Federal Judge Rodolfo Canicoba Corral, as part of an investigation into Operation Condor. Extradition requests were also made for Chilean Gens. Augusto Pinochet and Manuel Contreras, Uruguayan Gen. Julio Cesar Vadora, Paraguayan Gens. Alfredo Stroessner and Benito Guanes Serrano, and Bolivian Gen. Hugo Banzer, who recently resigned as president of that country for health reasons. The government and the National Defense Ministry have also shown similar passivity recently in the face of other signs of hardening on the part of the military, especially statements defending state terrorism by one officer whose extradition was sought by the Argentine judge and the revelation that the Military School taught torture methods to cadets and future officers. ================================================================= 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-03.12.02-06:12:27-22597