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July 13, 2009
Updates: Emerald Violence and Illegal Wiretapping
Recent reports have indicated that the attack on emerald czar Victor Carranza's caravan (see previous post) was carried out by Cuchillo, a paramilitary warlord who is expanding his drug empire in the plains of Eastern and Central Colombia. Details about the attack suggest that it was a militarily sophisticated operation. A large truck blocked the road while 3 SUVs pulled up behind it and about a dozen men emerged from the vehicles, attacking Carranza's caravan with grenades and machine gun fire, before retreating, burning two of the vehicles, and leaving into the night.
Given the complexity of the assassination attempt, many attributed it to a different drug kingpin operating in the plains, El Loco Barrera. Barrera has long been considered one of the country's main druglords. He has strong business relations with the FARC, local drug gangs and organized crime groups in Mexico and Central America.
In contrast to many present-day drug kingpins, however, he has no private army of his own and instead hires the most expensive and effective 'sicario' offices to carry out his military operations. He has been linked to a number of high-profile murders: a mafia-style assassination that shook Argentina, the murder of a former Northern Valley cartel kingpin hiding in Venezuela, and the infamous recent assassination of a former Medellin cartel leader in a Madrid hospital.
However, recent investigations have uncovered that Cuchillo, who commands a private army of at least 500 men, was responsible for the attack. He has been expanding his empire in the plains and was trying to conquer some of Carranza's territory. Emeralds are a great way to launder money and it seems that Cuchillo saw Carranza as an obstacle to his expansion northward. Apparently, he had explicitly warned Carranza to be careful, as he was the new boss in the area.
Despite the fact that it failed to kill Carranza, or even all of his bodyguards, the assassination attempt was a sophisticated operation even for FARC guerrillas, much less a mid-size drug organization like Cuchillo's. The growing power and military capacities of emerging drug organizations has started to seriously worry the authorities.
Meanwhile, investigations into illegal wiretapping by Colombia's intelligence agency DAS have revealed widespread abuses. Apparently, DAS leaders created a secret group, separate from DAS but entirely capable of accessing DAS information by request, dedicated to monitoring opposition politicians, journalists and activists.
The private lives of leaders of the Democratic Pole party are covered extensively in DAS documents. Jose Miguel Vivanco, the Americas director of the international NGO Human Rights watch, was also monitored closely. Vivanco was famously insulted by Presdient Uribe, who accused him and other human rights leaders of sympathizing with and even helping the FARC after Vivanco publicly criticized the President because of Colombia's human rights crisis.
This comes just weeks after it was revealed that in the 1980's, the Colombian government had a secret intelligence agency dedicated to monitoring, threatening and even torturing and killing people perceived as 'leftists', from union leaders to journalists.
Colombia is the world's most dangerous country for union leaders and one of the most dangerous countries for journalists. The fact that elements of the government continue to treat opposition leaders as threats to the state, without any real proof of criminal or violent activity, is certainly worrying, especially given the historical context.
Historically, when the government has described someone as a FARC collaborator, they have become military targets for paramilitary groups and elements of Colombian security forces. Indeed, as I mentioned in a previous post, many paramilitaries believe their central goal is to help the president preserve order, even though they spend most of their time participating in apolitical criminal activities. Therefore, President Uribe's tendency to publicly accuse human rights groups, opposition parties, foreign governments and journalists of helping the FARC is extremely irresponsible.
Posted by Pablo Rojas at July 13, 2009 10:41 PM
