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DE RUEHBO #0526/01 3182202
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R 142202Z NOV 06
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TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0783
INFO RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA 7273
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RUEHLP/AMEMBASSY LA PAZ NOV LIMA 4486
RUEHZP/AMEMBASSY PANAMA 9748
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RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC//USDP ADMIN/CHAIRS//

UNCLAS BOGOTA 010526 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PTER PGOV PREL MARR EAID CO
SUBJECT: GOC EFFORTS TO WIN POPULAR SUPPORT IN CONFLICT 
ZONES 
 
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Summary 
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¶1.  The GOC is implementing social action programs to 
complement military action and to win the support of two 
million people in conflict zones.  Colombian Armed Forces 
Commander General Padilla strongly supports the program and 
recently traveled to a remote village to open a rural health 
clinic.  President Uribe is expected to inaugurate a new town 
being built for survivors of a 2002 FARC massacre.  The 
programs appear popular, but must be integrated with 
longer-term development economic plans to sustain citizen 
support for the GOC.  End Summary. 
 
--------------------------------- 
Seeking Sustainable State Control 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶2.  In 2003, Uribe announced the GOC had established a police 
presence in every municipality in the country for the first 
time.  Still, the GOC recognized that a security presence 
alone is insufficient to achieve effective state control. 
Hence, the GOC set up the Centro de Coordinacion de Accion 
Integral (CCAI) to promote short-term social and economic 
development in nine "priority" zones where Colombian security 
forces have established security, but state control remains 
shaky.  The priority zones have a population of over two 
million. CCAI's goal is to build public support for the GOC 
and to improve its capacity to govern in the priority zones. 
CCAI has no budget of its own, but coordinates and 
prioritizes about eighty million dollars of GOC spending on 
social services, such as health clinics, schools and 
small-scale infrastructure.  CCAI's executive board of civil 
and military officials, chaired by presidential advisor Luis 
Alfonso Hoyas, meets regularly and is able to react quickly 
to events on the ground.  A small staff assigned from 
different agencies implements board decisions and cuts 
through red tape to quickly deliver emergency relief.  The 
USG plays an integral role in CCAI.  SouthCom helped design 
it, trained its staff, and spends 1-2 million USD a year to 
support dozens of its projects. 
 
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Opening a Health Clinic with the COLMIL Commander 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
¶3.  On October 27, we traveled by GOC military aircraft to 
the village of La Loma, Bojaya municipality, Choco, for 
CCAI's inauguration of a SouthCom-funded health clinic. 
Choco is one of Colombia's poorest departments, and years of 
conflict between illegal armed groups have further eroded 
social and economic development.  La Loma was a ghost town 
for over a year; its displaced population returned home only 
in the past six months as the GOC reestablished its presence. 
 CCAI civil coordinator Juan Carlos Vargas Morales said the 
new clinic, gleaming amongst dilapidated tin-roofed houses, 
is about more than providing health services to a traumatized 
population.  Rather, it is proof that the government has 
returned.  Residents were appreciative of the new clinic but 
unenthusiastic about employment prospects:  bananas and 
pineapples are the town's main products but they usually 
spoil by the time they reach the nearest markets downriver. 
 
¶4.  The presence of General Freddy Padilla de Leon, commander 
of Colombia's armed forces, together with a dozen reporters, 
underscored the visit's importance.  Padilla said ten percent 
of his time is devoted to winning "hearts and minds," because 
he thinks Colombia's conflict will not be resolved until 
citizens believe in the government.  He planned more 
humanitarian outreach to show the military is "not just about 
guns and bullets" and to gain the public's confidence. 
Still, the clinic's inauguration was inauspicious; its first 
patient was a woman treated for minor cuts when a 
helicopter's prop wash blew the roofs off nearby buildings 
and a piece of corrugated tin struck her in the head. 
 
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A New City for Victims of a Massacre 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶5. The GOC is spending millions of dollars carving a new city 
out of the jungle for survivors of the May 2002 FARC massacre 
 
of 119 civilians in a church in the village of Bellavista in 
Bojaya municipality.  CCAI is helping coordinate the 
construction of a new Bellavista about a mile away from the 
old one.  Hundreds of local laborers have worked for two 
years building 250 sturdy concrete homes and a scattering of 
public buildings.  CCAI officials said they were not sure 
what employment opportunities locals would have once the 
construction was done. 
 
¶6.  Bellavista locals greeted General Padilla 
enthusiastically when we visited and told us they were eager 
to move into their new homes.  The move is currently 
scheduled for early 2007.  The old Bellavista, whose 
ramshackle buildings are festooned with giant banners with 
pictures of the massacre victims, will then be converted into 
a memorial and children's park.  President Uribe is expected 
to inaugurate the memorial and the new Bellavista on the 
fifth anniversary of the massacre. 
 
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Comment 
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¶7.  CCAI programs appear to be popular and not without 
reason; providing clinics, for example, is a tangible 
demonstration of State concern.  Still, it remains to be seen 
if CCAI efforts are sufficiently integrated with the 
longer-term economic development plans necessary to establish 
a sustained GOC presence and build citizen loyalty. 
DRUCKER