CPTnet
19 April 2006

COLOMBIA UPDATE: February-March 2006

CPTers and residents of the Opón witnessed all three armed groups--the
army, FARC guerillas and the paramilitaries of the AUC--come through the
region in February and March. Team members also observed some movement of
the gasoline cartel. The presence of the Bloque Central Bolívar caused
particular anxiety among residents, given that the BCB had officially agreed
to lay down its arms and demobilize. The Organization of American States'
Mission to Support the Peace Process expressed concern that paramilitary
organizations in the country have not honored their agreement with the
government to demobilize.

In Barrancabermeja, social organizations continued to call attention to
violence against civilians as the 12 March 2006 congressional elections
approached. Kidnappings and assassinations in Barrancabermeja occurred as
well as firefights between the Colombian military and guerrillas.

CPT-Colombia sent mobile teams to communities outside the Magdalena Medio
region who had invited their accompaniment. In addition to ongoing work in
Bogotá and participation in a national conference of evangelical churches,
mobile teams visited communities in the departments (provinces) on the
Caribbean coast. A team participated in a pilgrimage in the Uraba region,
near the Panamanian border 20 28 February and visited the Afro-Colombian
community of Montes de Maria, 24-28 February. A team also made a regularly
scheduled visit to the peace community, Micoahumado, 18-24 February.

1 February

Opón residents reported that they had seen four guerrillas coming up the
river in a canoe on the previous evening.

As a follow-up to the Canadian Ambassador's visit to Barrancabermeja and the
Opón in late January, Joel Klassen and Robin Buyers visited the Canadian
Embassy in Bogota. They discussed Canada's role in funding the Organization
of American States' verification of the deeply-flawed paramilitary
demobilization process.

1-2 February

CPTers met with members of the Canadian church organization Kairos, an
ecumenical project of the mainline churches that does political advocacy,
education and media work.

3 February

CPTers attended the Human Rights Workers' Forum Meeting with the Mayor of
Barrancabermeja, National Police, the Human Rights Ombudsman, and the
Advisor on Peace and Civic Life. The meeting marked the first time since
November 2005 that members of the Human rights Workers' Forum met with the
Mayor. In November the mayor committed himself to meeting monthly with the
Forum. (See 6 December CPTnet release: The Violence Against Civilians
Continues," http://www.cpt.org/archives/2005/dec05/0015.html.)

Jorge Gomez, the governmental Regional Human Rights Ombudsman, reported
increases in murders, threats, displacements, and other human rights
violations in 2005 over 2004, and noted that the situation had not improved
in 2006. He called the displacement of 14,000 people from the zone in 2005
a humanitarian crisis that is forcing the human capital from the region.
Others noted that the government does not seem to make protecting human life
a priority, which allows impunity for crimes against civilians to continue.

Two thousand five hundred members of the paramilitary group Bloque Central
Bolívar are demobilizing in the zone, but assassinations continue, and
armed paramilitaries are active in some of the city's poorest neighborhoods.
Lack of public transparency about demobilization is a serious concern.
Forum members called for vigorous monitoring.

6 February

Members of the Human Rights Workers' Forum met with the Swiss ambassador and
a delegation of three Swiss women parliamentarians. Their visit marked the
third diplomatic visit to understand the human rights situation in the area
in two weeks. Delegations from Canada and the European Union had visited
previously.

8 February

A member of a family who had lived in the Opón community for many years
came to visit the team in Barrancabermeja. Almost the whole family has left
the community in recent years. He talked at length about the sale of the
farm, the family's history in the region, their hopes for their move, and
their sadness at leaving behind their beloved land.

9 February

The team received reports that the Colombian Army, paramilitaries and
guerrillas passed through La Florida community in the Opón the previous
day. The guerrilla group consisted of one man and three women armed with
machine guns. The men whom Opon residents recognized as paramilitaries wore
civilian clothing and carried a variety of guns.

13 February

Team member Pierre Shantz had a chance encounter with a paramilitary
commander who has officially joined the government demobilization program,
and claims to have laid down his arms. He said that many ex-combatants who
cannot make a living think about returning to their former lives. People in
the community have told CPTers that he continues to act as commander of the
paramilitaries in the area.

13-17 February

Joel Klassen attended the First National Summit of Evangelical Churches for
Peace in Colombia, San Andrés Islands. Protestant churches in Colombia
(referred to as "evangelical") met at the summit to discuss the country's
armed conflict for the first time.

In a document that came out of the meeting, leaders, pastors, and church
workers declared that "the Christian Evangelical Church stands up as a
prophetic voice for the peace of the nation, being an institution that is
present in all the corners of the nation --We make a call to the churches to
recognize that our mission is to participate in the transformation of our
society toward the intention of God; to involve in educating new citizens to
be the social base of a new Colombia where justice lives and human rights
are respected, that in turn makes possible the peaceful coexistence of all."

14 February

Opón community members informed CPTers that armed paramilitary soldiers in
civilian clothing had been seen in the county seat, Ciénaga del Opón,
during a mobile health clinic day. Paramilitaries in civilian clothing
occasionally enter the Florida community, across the lake from Ciénaga.

15 February

Surveyors came for two days to mark boundaries of land parcels in the
Opón. More formal land ownership will protect residents from losing their
land in the event that they displace temporarily because of the vio