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OEA/Ser.L/V/II.53
doc. 22
30 June 1981
Original: Spanish
REPORT
ON THE SITUATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS
IN THE REPUBLIC OF COLOMBIA
4.
The Commission was informed of and obtained information about military
operations carried out in different parts of the country in March and April
1981. These operations left a
number of dead and wounded and resulted in the capture of important M-19
leaders. Some of the captives were
transferred for trial, as stated before, to the oral court-martial which was
being held at the La Picota Penitentiary in Bogotá since their cases were under
that court¢
jurisdiction. Others were tried at
the court-martial held in Ipiales, as noted in Chapter V of this report.
The
Commission requested information from the Government on these charges.
The Government turned over a document about the military operations,
which contains background information and draws its own conclusions. This document covers military operations carried out in
southern and western Colombia between March 6 and April 24, 1981.
The text of the document follows:
1.
BACKGROUND
As
a result of the public forces¢
operations against the M-19 following the robbery of a large amount of arms from
the magazines of the General Command in late 1979, approximately 80% of the arms
were recovered and several of those responsible for the robbery and Amy members
were captured. This forced the
organization to go on to the defensive. Their
leaders decided to reduce their activities in the city and to concentrate on the
countryside. Most of the resources
they gained from the seizure of the Dominican Republic Embassy on February 27
1980 were used for this purpose. At
the same time, they decided to use the services of Cuba to instruct members in
the techniques of guerrilla warfare.
To
do this, the so-called national Leadership of the M-19, has been selecting
people since mid-1980 who meet certain requirements to receive instructions and
to complete their indoctrination. This work was carried out primarily in the regions of Bogotá,
Cauca Valley, Tolima, Viejo Caldas, Antioquia, and Santander, and among members
of the so-called Huila-Caquetá Armed Mobile Group. In addition, persons from other countries (México, Costa
Rica, Panamá and Nicaragua) were selected.
Most of those recruited in Colombia training, the details of that
training or the later plans.
In
September and October, the persons selected were concentrated in Panamá City,
Panamá, which they reached, by different means over similar routes.
There they were welcomed by Colombians, Panamanians and Cubans who had
made preparations for their stay. They
later traveled to Cuba by air. They
took the guerrilla warfare course in Cuba for approximately three months.
Most of the instructions were Cuban Army Officers.
These persons (approximately 120) were concentrated in the Ché Guevara
School or camp. In addition, members of the Jorge Zambrano Command, who had
taken the Dominican Embassy, took another course at the so-called Contrapunto
School, which operates at the same Ché Guevara camp.
Upon
completion of the course, they decided to return to Colombia, also via Panamá,
in two different groups and on different dates and from different places.
The first group led by JOSE HELMER MARIN MARIN went from Cuba to Panamá
on a Cubana de Aviación airliner and then from Panamá City to the town of Jaqué
in a Las Perlas airplane. From
there they went in a small vessel to the coast to Chocó.
A group of 41 persons landed there in the first week of February. These persons had plans to cross Chocó and to organize an
area of operations in Viejo Caldas, Norte del Valle and parte of Antioquía.
The
second group under the command of CARLOS TOLEDO PLATA traveled from Cuba to
Panamá on Cubana de Aviación. From
Panamá they went to the Colombian coast, in the Department of Nariño, in a
fishing vessel named Fredy. In the
first week of March, 85 persons disembarked near Tumaco with a large amount of
war material and service and communications equipment.
Included in this group were former members of the rural armed groups of
the FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias Comunistas).
2.
OPERATIONS
On March 6, 1981, four persons were arrested in a truck at a customs
post. The truck was carrying a
large amount of war material consisting of G-3 rifles, carbines, hand grenades,
60-mm mortar shells, 40 mm cannon shells, dynamite, ammunition and
communications equipment. As a result of this, and on the basis of later information,
that same day the Army started operations and wiped out the invading group.
It caused many dead and wounded and took many captives.
Approximately 50% of the members went to Ecuador where they were detained
by the authorities of that country and later turned over to the Colombian army.
On May 20, 1981, 66 of the members of that invading group were sentenced
by the court-martial held in the city of Ipiales (Nariño).
Others, at the request of competent authority, were transferred to Bogotá
where they were put on trial.
The group that disembarked at Chocó remained in the area for
approximately one month without being detected by the public forces.
When the group was finally detected, they fell victim to military
operations, which resulted in their being broken up into smaller groups,
followed by many dead and wounded and captives, and finally dispersal and
virtually total destruction of the groups.
One important fact is that just before the landing, members of M-19 urban
groups had carried out administrative work and indoctrination in the area which
was done form the start with the support of the negro population.
The court-martial that will try these persons will be convoked soon.
3.
RESULTS
The following are the total results of the operations conducted against
the M-19 over the present year, that is, up to May 24, 1981:
a) Antisocial elements
|
Dead
|
67
|
|
Captured
|
151
|
|
Among
the latter are members of the
So-called
command groups.
|
|
b)
Public Forces
c)
Material confiscated
| G-3
rifles |
140 |
| P-48
submachine guns
|
26 |
| M-1
carbines
|
11 |
| Rocket
launchers
|
9 |
| Pistols
and revolvers
|
20 |
| 60
mm mortar grenades
|
29 |
| 40
mm grenades
|
22 |
| Rocket
launcher grenades
|
121 |
| Flares
|
42 |
| Hand
grenades
|
298 |
| Anti-personal
mines
|
36 |
| Dynamite
caps
|
355 |
| Ammunition,
different caliber’s
|
29,619 |
Communications
equipment, uniforms boots and a large volume of service materiel.
4. CONCLUSIONS
a. Participation of Cuba in the instruction and training of the members of
the two M-19 subversive groups that landed on the pacific coast was proven.
b. International intervention was demonstrated, as stated in the previous
paragraph, with the help that Panamanians and Cubans gave them in the Republic
of Panama and with the capture of five Panamanians, one Costa Rican, and one
Uruguayan.
c. Following Cuban directives, the M-19 has been attempting to unify the
armed groups that exist in Colombia but is not succeeding in this attempt. It is considered more difficult to achieve this completely
now that their efforts in the rural area have failed.
d. Bearing in mind the number of members and sympathizers, their economic
resources, the external assistance that they receive and the characteristics of
their leaders, these subversive organizations continue being a threat to the
public peace.
e. Despite these losses the M-19 still has the capacity to act, especially
in urban areas, and to reorganize itself in an attempt to take the initiative,
to recover from these defeats and to show its strength.
To neutralize this, it is considered that the current rules on
constitutional exceptions will continue being a decisive factor. /
D.
Rural people and the Indian communities
1.
The documents and information about military operations, which are
mentioned in this chapter, refer to the fact that these actions have had an
impact on the local people and Indian communities in certain rural parts of the
country. The result has been a
flight of people and the capture of civilians who belong to these sectors of the
Colombian population.
2.
In the Second National Forum on Human Rights, held in Bogotá from August
15 to 17, 1980. Acción Campesina
Colombiana (ACC), the Federación Nacional Sindical Agropecuaria (FENSA), and
the Regional Indian Council of the Cauca (CRIC) submitted a motion on the campesino
and Indian situation in Colombia. The
conclusions of this document are given below:
In
view of the circumstances, the campesino and Indian organizations that
are signing this motion proposed to the second Forum of Human Rights and General
Amnesty support the actions that we need to promote and secure the following
basic claims:
a. Full guarantee for real exercise of the right to organize and bargain
collectively in the countryside.
b. Demilitarization of the rural areas and a dialogue through the
representative organizations o local farmers and the Indian communities in an
effort to find solutions for problems of public order in rural areas.
c. Indemnity to widows of the campesinos and Indians who have been
killed and for the destruction of their crops, homes and so forth.
d.
Lifting of the state of siege and repeal of the Security Statute.
e. Real and effective participation of rural organizations in the different
agencies that study, plan and define national policies for the farm sector.
f. Prompt delivery to the campesinos of lands currently covered under
the Agrarian Reform Law. Speedier
processing of these cases and review of those that resulted in the removal of
lands during the past two years by a commission in which the campesino
movement will have full participation.
g.
Establishment of crop insurance for small and mid-size farms operations,
in accordance with a plan that was studied by campesino and Indian
organizations.
h. Applications to the farm sector of the standard workweek and minimum
wages in effect for the urban sector.
i. Establishment of governmental mechanisms or expansion and strengthening
of existing mechanisms to guarantee full compliance with labor laws for farm
workers and full recognition of their organizations in disputes.
j. Respect for Indian reservations, their customs and their cultural
traditions, and return of lands taken from Indian groups.
3.
In September 1979, a Seminar on Human Rights in Rural Areas of the Andean
Region was held in Bogotá. This
seminar was organized by the International Commission of Jurists, with the
co-sponsorship of the Latin American Council for Law and Development.
Motions on different topics were presented and discussed at this seminar.
Among them were motions on labor law, union rights and the rights of the
Indian population.
As
regards the first topic, in the part on Colombia, the summary of discussions
stated the following:
At
the start, Colombia¢
s rules in the labor code were applied to both farm workers and city workers,
without distinction. The law
permits basic industrial trade unions although the latter are weak and the
employers are opposed to them. In
the Department of Valle del Cauca, the growth of agroindustry
(especially large estates and sugar mills) and consequently, the
increasing number of wage earners have enabled workers in this region to develop
a significant level of organization. The
law includes individual and collective contracts for farm workers but in
practice, these have been used only where rural organizations are strong.
As regards the second topic, Human Rights of the Indian Population, the
summary stated the following with respect to Colombia:
…
in Colombia the Indian population is a minority.
In the Andean area of Colombia, the Indians still follow their historical
traditions. The land tenure system
is the reservation. In jungle areas, the situation of the Indians is different
because land settlement has occurred there.
State policy is guided by the objective of forced integration of the
Indian population into so-called "western civilization.”
The
Indians are not recognized as Indian populations with rights.
It was also stated that besides this settlement of their lands by
outsiders, the Indians are the targets of activities of Catholic and religious
missions, which have grown recently. Birth
control and the destruction of their environment amount to policies aimed at
liquidating the Indian communities. All
of this, it was said, is done under the umbrella of oppression and persecution,
which is part of a militarization campaign of Colombia¢s
rural areas. /
4.
Several documents examined by the Commission point to harassment by the
public forces of the leaders of campesino and Indian organizations,
especially in the Cauca area. This
was mentioned in the statement of Messrs. Marco Anibal and Edgar Alirio Avirama
Avirama, who are being held on charges of belonging to the M-19 movement, as
noted in Chapter III.E.2 of this report. /
5.
In January 1981, the Director of the Indian Affairs Division of the
Ministry of Government, Dr. Julian Narvaez, offered to the Commission
information about Indian communities in Colombia.
This information referred to the following matters:
a) At this time, Colombia has 77 Indians groups with a population of
approximately 450,000. O this
population, 27% live in the jungle and the others are in the Andean regions in
the departments of Cauca, Nariño, La Guajira, Caldas, Tunja in the Department
of Boyacá and in the intendency of Putumayo.
Most of the Indian communities live in these places;
/
b) There are Indian areas that have no contact with civilization, one case
being the Caraballo Indians in the Amazon.
Government attempts have been made to integrate them but the embers of
this community have resisted all efforts. Several
Colombian foundations and associations have gone through these areas, but
basically for the purpose of evangelization;
c) The main problem facing the Indian communities rest in the land tenure
system. This problem is worst in
the department of Cauca. The Indian
sanctuaries were established in colonial times and several of these still exist.
These are pieces of land that the Spaniards gave to the Indians as
communal property and since they are inalienable, they may not be sold.
They are also free of all taxes. Law
89 of 1890 covers these sanctuaries. Another
serious problem concerns Indian communities that are not in any sanctuary or
protected by any law. Several
proposals have been made for these cases but they were never made into law due
to problems arising from economic, political, investigative and religious
interests;
d) A very complete and progressive proposal will be made at the special
session of the Colombian Congress that is convoked for the month of January
1981. This bell is a comprehensive
legal structure covering, in addition to other matters, civil, penal, labor,
fiscal, religious, economic and social issues involving Indians.
Approximately 400 laws relate to different Indian questions but these
laws are all out of date;
e) Another problem the Indians face is that when settlers move into certain
communities, they take large areas of land away from the Indians.
Since 1968 the Government has been establishing what are known as Indian
reservations. These are empty lands
given to Indian communities for their use and are designed to prevent
interference and abuses. At this
time there are 42 of these reservations established on national lands set up by
the intendances and the commissariats. There
are also 30 Indian reservations in the departments.
In addition, 46 reservations will be established to cover all the Indian
population of the country. The 72
reservations that have been established to date cover almost four million
hectares. It is estimated that the
46 new reservations will be established over the next three years.
Socioeconomic studies are now being conducted for this purpose;
f) The Central Government acts through the ministry of government and the
Colombian agrarian Reform Institute (INCORA) for all measures concerning the
Indian problem;
g) At times, the Indians are the victims of arbitrary action by the settlers
and subordinate authorities. There
have been cases of Police Inspectors being settlers.
The persons responsible for this arbitrary action, when the facts are
investigated, are punished by removal from office as a result of investigation
and the case may also be referred to the Procurator General of the Nation when
punishment must be handed down. Most
of these arbitrary cases occur in national lands located in the Amazon and the
Orinoco Basin. In 1980, five cases
resulted in investigations and penalties. Similar
problems have also come up in the departments, especially Cauca, where three
legal suits were brought in 1980;
h) Problems have come up in Cauca as a result of the subversive action that
involved several Indians associated with the M-19.
Several are being detained and tried by the M-19 oral court-martial.
Several campesinos also joined the FARC, especially in Cauca
Department and some of them are being detained and tried by the FARC oral
court-martial;
i) Several M-19 and FARC leaders conducted political activities in the
Indian communities and among farmer groups.
Their arguments are based on what they call reclaiming lands.
In the Indian sanctuaries, their traditional authorities are elected.
There are some cases of political participation in armed movements
against the Government. In El Pato,
in Huila department, adjacent to the department of Cauca and the Intendency of
Caquetá, problems such as the exodus of campesinos have occurred.
E.
Government action in connection with the Indian problem
1.
During the on-site investigation the Commission met with the Minister of
Government, Dr. Germán Zea Hernández, who discussed several aspects of the
Indian problem in Colombia. This
high Government has taken to resolve this complex problem.
2.
Among the actions that the government has taken is the draft law that has
been presented to the Congress of the Republic for study and approval.
/
Under the terms of this draft law, policies will be determined for
serving the Indian communities, special powers will be granted to the President
of the Republic, the Indian Development Fund would be established and other
provisions would be issued. According to the first article of this proposal, the law
presented to the Congress of the Republic “has
the fundamental objective of determining a policy for the Colombian State that
would guarantee to its Indian population living conditions and development that
are consistent with human dignity.” In the second article, this policy would be guided by rules
set forth in the National Constitution regarding the following principles:
1.
The Colombian State recognizes for its Indian population:
a) The freedom to determine their own cultural, political, social and
economic development and to have that development encouraged and respected.
b)
The legitimacy, for all legal purposes, of their traditional authorities
and their forms of government and social organization.
c) The right of ownership of their traditional lands in accordance with
their own rules, uses and customs, as well as of the natural resources of those
territories, without prejudice to rights legitimately acquired by third persons
over those lands and resources.
d) The validity of the standards that traditionally regulated the life of
the community and of the bodies responsible for applying them, in accordance
with the competence determined by law.
e) The right to conserve defends, increase and spread their cultural and
artistic heritage as well as to preserve their archeological wealth.
f) The right of their members to accept or reject military service in time
of peace.
2.
The Colombian State makes the following commitments to its Indians
population:
a) That any instruction given, in any of its forms, will be given with their
approval and be based on the cultural characteristics and behavior of each
ethnic group and be given in their natural surroundings, insofar as possible.
b) To carry out a program that would meet the current needs of sufficient
and adequate lands.
c)
To give them education and the means to maintain and develop their
cultural heritage and at the same time, to acquire and apply those sciences and
techniques that are useful for their development.
d) To prepare and develop training and service programs in preventive and
curative medicine consistent with the knowledge of traditional Indian medicine
and which shall be no impediment to the practice of their own curative medicine.
e) To guarantee to them the exercise of freedom of conscience and the
practice of their traditional worship or any other that they may freely select,
on the basis of the constitutional precept that no one may be molested by reason
of their religious opinions or compelled to profess believes or to observe
practices contrary to their conscience. /
The
Statement of Reasons that the Minister of Government gave to the Congress for
its consideration of this proposal covers, in addition to others, the following
points:
The
proposal has the fundamental objective of developing a definitive and coherent
policy on the basic principles through which the Indian population of the
country can achieve their own cultural, political, social and economic
development by reasons of state recognition of certain rights, assumption by the
state of related obligations and establishment of a legal system in which the
relations of the state and the so-called “major society” can be conducted
with that population.
To
develop and carry out such a policy, the following are recognized for the Indian
communities: The right to self-determination; the legitimacy, for all legal
purposes, of their traditional authorities and their forms of government and
social organization; the right o ownership of their traditionally occupied
lands, in accordance with their own rules, uses and customs, as well as over
natural resources, with the limitation imposed by rights legitimately acquired
by third persons; validity of the customary rules that have regulated them and
of the organs that apply the,, within the area of competence that is determined
by law; the right to increase, conserve, spread and defend their cultural and
artistic heritage, and to preserve their archeological wealth, and the right of
their members to accept or reject military service, while they still belong to
their communities, during times of peace.
It
also establishes state obligations, and guidelines for carrying them out, in
connection with the Indian community. A
few of these are as follows: Any training given to them, in any of its forms,
must first receive their prior approval and must be based on the cultural
characteristics and behavior of each ethnic group; providing them with
sufficient and adequate lands; providing the, with education and the means to
maintain and develop their own cultural heritage and to acquire and apply
sciences and techniques that are useful for their development; to prepare and
develop medical training and care programs that are consistent with the
knowledge of Indian medicine; and to guarantee them the exercise of their
constitutional rights of freedom of conscience and practice of traditional
worship.
3.
The Government has turned over to the Commission the Indian Development
Plan prepared in November 1980, by the National Planning Department.
The annex to this plan is referred to in the preceding section.
The Indian development Plan has been approved and is now being executed.
Its execution will require the sum of 1.3 billion Colombian pesos in
addition to the sums included in the regular budget.
Until 1980 the budget that has been set aside to care for Indian problems
has not exceeded twenty million Colombian pesos.
The Indian Development Plan, which will be implemented over three years
from 1981 – 1983, seeks to solve, in addition to other problems, those
relating to lands, health, education and infrastructure.
In the text of the document, the general objective of the Program is
defined as “solving the most urgent problems of the Indian population and
narrowing the existing gap between the development of the country and the
development of this part of the Colombian population, with respect for its
traditional culture and territories.” The
specific objectives are given below:
1. In the area of lands, to return territories that have been taken away
from the Indian communities and to improve the situation of established
reservations by buying the improvements made by settlers.
2. In legal matters, to develop a legal system suited to current conditions
and the needs of the Indian communities in fiscal, civil, penal and labor
matters.
3. In the area of health, to lower morbidity and mortality rates by
spreading medical care coverage through a strategy of primary health care, using
paramedical personnel elected from among the communities, and avoiding, wherever
possible, clashes between differing ideas on health, sickness and medicine.
4. In the area of sanitation, to improve the sanitary conditions of the
Indian communities and thereby lowering sources of infection.
5. In the area of education, to
design and use curricula adopted to the language and ecological conditions of
the environment in which the Indians live, as established under the terms of
decree No. 1142 of 1978; to train suitable Indian personnel for the purpose of
increasing the literacy of the adult Indian population and increasing the
participation of Indian children in formal education, while not removing them
from their environment.
6. In the area of research, to see to it that national anthropological
research organizations gradually assume the linguistic work and the production
of scientific and teaching materials in Colombian tongues.
Also, see to it that the anthropological research of the Indians in aimed
at the requirements of the State¢s
involvement, i.e., and its applications. /
4.
On the basis of the explanations given in this Chapter, the Commission is
of the opinion that the military operations in the rural areas result in
excesses in detriment to the local people and, in some cases these excesses have
harmed the interests of persons unconnected with the events that provoked those
operations and that in other cases, the claims of injured persons living in
remote areas have not been attended to satisfactorily.
Furthermore,
the Commission has acquainted itself of the intentions of the Government in
executing the Indian development Plan. This
plan should be supplemented by new laws that improve the life systems of the
Indians and promote their development.
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