VZCZCXYZ0026
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHBO #1400/01 0592112
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 282112Z FEB 07
FM AMEMBASSY BOGOTA
TO SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 3037

UNCLAS BOGOTA 001400 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR WHA/AND 
DEPARTMENT FOR H 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOC ECON CO
SUBJECT: SCENESETTER FOR CODEL MCGOVERN 
 
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Summary 
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¶1. (SBU) Post welcomes CODEL McGovern to Colombia.  With U.S. 
help, President Uribe has made great strides in fighting drug 
trafficking and terrorism.  In January, the GOC presented a 
Plan Colombia consolidation phase strategy, with a heightened 
emphasis on social development.  USAID programs aim to 
strengthen democratic institutions, foster a culture of human 
rights, create alternative development opportunities, and 
assist people displaced by internal violence.  Colombia's 
human rights record is improving.  Truth about links between 
paramilitaries, politicians and others is coming out as a 
result of the paramilitary demobilization and the Justice and 
Peace Law process.  Exploratory talks with the National 
Liberation Army (ELN) are focused on establishing an agenda 
for formal negotiations and a ceasefire agreement; the 
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) have yet to 
start talks with the GOC.  The FARC has held three U.S. 
citizens for more than four years; their safe recovery is a 
top priority.  The economy is growing, and the United States 
and Colombia signed a Free Trade Agreement in November 2006. 
End Summary 
 
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U.S. Assistance 
--------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) On January 24, the GOC presented a Plan Colombia 
consolidation phase strategy.  The proposal contains a 
heightened emphasis on social development, assigning new 
resources to human rights, displaced people, and 
Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities.  It also aims to 
reintegrate 42,000 demobilized ex-combatants and deserters 
and to promote Colombia's competitiveness and licit exports. 
The GOC is seeking funding from the United States and 
European countries. 
 
¶3. (SBU) USG security assistance is designed to combat the 
interrelated threats of drug trafficking and terrorism and 
includes training, material aid, and guidance to security 
forces and other institutions.  Uribe characterizes U.S. 
assistance as critical to the GOC,s "Democratic Security" 
policy - aimed at establishing a state presence throughout 
national territory - and considers the United States to be 
Colombia,s most important ally. 
 
 -- Plan Patriota: The military's multi-phased campaign to 
re-take areas dominated by the FARC is in its third year. 
The first phase, which focused on securing Cundinamarca 
Department around Bogota, pushed the FARC away from the 
capital and resulted in the deaths of five mid-level FARC 
commanders.  The second, more complex phase is two years old 
and is focused on the FARC,s traditional stronghold in 
southern Colombia.  The operation has disrupted the FARC's 
hold on the region, but sustainment of troops in this 
isolated region is difficult.  Infectious diseases - 
especially leishmaniasis, a parasitic skin infection - and 
landmines are the leading causes of military casualties. 
 
 -- Despite the Colombian's military's success, the FARC 
continues to attack isolated or smaller police and military 
targets throughout the country, while avoiding direct 
contests with larger units.  Three notable exceptions include 
the late December 2005 attack that killed 29 Colombian 
soldiers just outside of La Macarena National Park, two 
attacks on civilians, resulting in 17 dead and 14 injured, in 
southern Colombia in late February 2006, and a November 2006 
attack that killed 17 police officers and three civilians in 
Tierralta, Cordoba Department. 
 
-- Center for Coordinated Integral Action: With U.S. support, 
the GOC formed in 2005 an interagency center to facilitate 
delivery of social services in seven areas that have 
traditionally lacked state presence and been controlled by 
illegal armed groups.  The Center focuses on providing 
immediate social services, including documentation, medical 
care, and longer-term development projects.  More than 40,000 
individuals have been enrolled in state health care.  Judges, 
investigators, and public defenders have been placed in all 
16 municipalities of the Plan Patriota area.  A public 
library was opened in early 2006 in the town of San Vicente 
del Caguan, which served as the unofficial capital of the 
FARC's demilitarized zone during the peace process with 
President Pastrana. 
 
--------------------------------- 
Drug Eradication and Interdiction 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶4. (SBU) Eradication and interdiction are at record levels. 
The aerial eradication program exceeded the mid-year revised 
bilateral spray goal of 160,000 hectares of coca with a 2006 
year-end total of 169,399 hectares sprayed.  This was the 
sixth straight record spray year, and 24 percent more than 
the 2005 total.  Moreover, the National Police and military 
forces seized over 203 metric tons of cocaine (HC1) and coca 
base in 2006, a near record quantity, and destroyed 200 HC1 
laboratories, also a record.  The GOC reported the manual 
eradication of over 43,808 hectares of illicit crops in 2006 
(including 42,111 hectares of coca and 1,697 hectares of 
opium poppy).  Manual eradication remains costly in terms of 
human and mechanical resources: 41 security force personnel 
and civilian eradicators were killed in 2006 by improvised 
explosive devices (IEDs) and narcoterrorist attacks. Manual 
eradication projects placed a heavy burden on the National 
Police to provide security for eradicators. 
 
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U.S. Assistance to Development and Democracy Building 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
 
¶5. (U) The USAID Mission in Colombia funds programs in three 
key strategic sectors.  USAID,s Democratic Governance 
programs aim to improve the transparency of the justice 
system, assist the peace process, promote respect for human 
rights, support democratic processes, and foster efficiency 
and accountability.  USAID programs also promote legal 
alternative development opportunities through increased 
competitiveness, improved local government infrastructure and 
management, and a more favorable environment for investment 
and trade.  Lastly, USAID provides support to nearly 2.7 
million Colombians displaced by internal violence as well as 
children who have been forced to serve as child combatants. 
Colombia has the second largest population of internally 
displaced persons, behind only Sudan. 
 
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Military Justice and Improved Human Rights Record 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
¶6. (SBU) The Uribe Administration continues to make progress 
on human rights cases involving military abuse or 
collaboration with paramilitaries.  We continually stress the 
need for the legal system that delivers credible, timely 
results.  Minister of Defense Santos has identified military 
justice reform as a top priority; in October, he named the 
first civilian - and the first woman - as director of the 
Military Criminal Justice System.  In January 2007, MOD 
Santos relieved Colonel Hernan Mejia Gutierrez, a highly 
decorated colonel, from command of the 13th Mobile Brigade 
due to allegations tying him to former paramilitary leader 
Jorge 40.  This was the first time the MOD had taken such 
action against an active commander for alleged paramilitary 
ties. 
 
¶7. (U) On May 22, 2006, Colombian army soldiers gunned down 
10 members of an elite judicial police squadron in Jamundi, 
Valle Department.  These police officers had received DEA 
training and support and were part of a successful counter 
narcotics unit. 15 soldiers, including the battalion 
commander, are on trial for the crime.  In June, the military 
and civilian justice systems signed a Memorandum of 
Understanding (MOU) that provided the Prosecutor General's 
office with the power to investigate and make jurisdictional 
recommendations in all alleged human rights cases against 
military defendants.  Jamundi, for example, is in the 
civilian courts. 
 
¶8. (U) Human rights training is mandatory for all members of 
the military and police.  Less than two percent of human 
rights violations are attributable to government security 
forces, according to GOC statistics.  In 2006, total 
homicides in Colombia fell by 5 percent to 17,281, the lowest 
level in 20 years, kidnappings by 14 percent to 687, and 
forced displacements by 20 percent to 172,722, building on 
trends from previous years.  The GOC has a difficult but 
active dialogue with NGOs, the United Nations, and foreign 
governments.  The local office of the United Nations High 
Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) has noted positive 
advancements in the GOC's human rights record, but has also 
expressed concerns over alleged extrajudicial killings by the 
military. 
 
¶9. (SBU) There has been investigative and judicial progress 
in several high profile human rights cases.  In January 2007, 
the Prosecutor General's Office (Fiscalia) announced the 
indictments and arrests of seven soldiers on homicide charges 
in the January 21, 2006 killing of Edilberto Vasquez Cardona 
of the Arenas Alta Peace Community in San Jose de Apartado. 
In February 2007, the Fiscalia summoned 68 soldiers of the 
17th Brigade to a formal interrogation hearing into the 
February 21, 2005 massacre of eight members of the San Jose 
de Apartado peace community.  Also in February 2007, 
authorities arrested five suspects in the January 31 killing 
of Yolanda Izquierdo, leader of a group representing 
displaced persons reclaiming paramilitary-occupied land in 
Monteria.  Police expect more arrests in the case. 
 
¶10. (SBU) Other long standing human rights cases, such as the 
1998 Santo Domingo case and the 1997 Mapiripan massacre, are 
delayed in courts, pending decisions by the judges.  Under 
Secretary for Political Affairs Burns has repeatedly raised 
 
SIPDIS 
these cases with both President Uribe and the Prosecutor 
General, and Embassy officers regularly meet with senior GOC 
and Fiscalia officials to press for resolution in these 
cases. 
 
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Extradition 
----------- 
 
¶11. (SBU) President Uribe is a strong supporter of the 
U.S.-Colombia extradition relationship.  Since taking office, 
he has approved over 430 extraditions to the United States. 
President Uribe has approved but suspended the extradition of 
four AUC leaders to ensure their continued cooperation in the 
AUC demobilization process. 
 
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Demobilization and Peace Process 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶12. (SBU) Over 32,000 former paramilitaries have demobilized 
since 2002, and a further 11,000 have deserted from all 
illegal armed groups (about half from the FARC).  Some 
renegade former AUC members have joined new criminal groups. 
The reinsertion program has limited funding and logistical 
problems, but is slowly improving.  In FY06, Congress 
approved up to USD 20 million in demobilization assistance, 
subject to certification.  Consultations continue with the 
Congress regarding the U.S. intention to spend USD 15.5 
million in FY06.  The USG has also demarched numerous allies, 
with some success, to financially support these processes. 
The GOC currently pays 96 percent of the Reintegration 
Program's budget, while the international community pays 4 
percent.  Reintegration Commissioner Frank Pearl, who has 
been in charge of the Reintegration Program since September 
2006, will launch a Capital Investment Fund with the support 
of Bill Gates on March 19 in Cartagena to raise funds for 
reintegration.  Pearl has warned, however, that completely 
abolishing former paramilitary networks will be more complex 
and take longer than anticipated. 
 
¶13. (SBU) The Justice and Peace Law confessions (version 
libres) of ex-paramilitary chiefs began with ex-leader 
Salvatore Mancuso testifying in December.  Rigorous 
implementation of the law and ensuring the safety of 
witnesses and victims are key to ensuring peace and justice 
in Colombia.  The version libre and related processes 
continue to reveal truths that no other Colombian 
administration has come close to discovering.  Eight 
Congressmen and the former chief of the Administrative 
Security Department (DAS), Jose Noguera, are in jail; one 
Congressman is on the run in Europe; and five others have 
been called to testify in the Supreme Court.  President Uribe 
strongly supports the Colombian Supreme Court's 
investigations into links between paramilitaries and 
politicians, and provided the funding needed for the Supreme 
Court to set up its own investigative unit to probe deeper. 
 
 
¶14. (SBU) The ELN has been negotiating with the GOC for over 
a year, but it is unclear whether it is ready to implement a 
cease-fire. The U.S. supports a process that leads to ELN 
cease-fire, disarmament, and demobilization.   The FARC and 
the GOC had publicly announced their willingness to enter 
into talks, but an October 19 car bomb attack that left 17 
injured led President Uribe to revoke outreach efforts as 
long as the FARC continued to commit terrorist acts.  Both 
sides sporadically reiterate their interest in negotiating a 
humanitarian exchange, but have been unable to agree on the 
conditions for initiating talks on the issue. 
 
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U.S. Hostages 
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¶15. (SBU) The three U.S. contractors captured by the FARC in 
February 2003 are the longest held U.S. hostages in the 
world.  Their safe release continues to be a top priority. 
The Colombians are providing full assistance.  Uribe has 
assured us that the U.S. hostages will be included in any 
humanitarian exchange.  The Embassy held a commemoration 
ceremony on February 13, marking the fourth anniversary of 
their capture.  In January, former Development Minister 
Fernando Araujo escaped from six years of FARC captivity 
after an army rescue attempt.  In February, a military 
operation resulted in the rescue an army captain whom the ELN 
had allegedly kidnapped in 2003. 
 
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Labor 
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¶16. (U) In June 2006, the GOC, trade confederations, and 
business representatives signed a Tripartite Accord at 
International Labor Organization (ILO) in Gevenva, removing 
Colombia from discussion in the ILO's Committee for the 
Application of Standards for the first time in 21 years. 
Under the accord, a resident ILO representative was sent to 
Colombia, and he began his functions in January.  The 
agreement also committed the government to financing the ILO 
Special Technical Cooperation program and allocated USD 1.5 
million to the Fiscalia to combat impunity for violence 
against trade unionists.  To date, the GOC has assigned 
nearly 100 prosecutorial and investigative personnel to 
investigate 200 cases of violence against trade unionists, 
prioritized by the trade confederations.  Labor leaders and 
the UNHCHR's local representative have praised the initiative. 
 
¶17. (U) Although trade unionists continue to be victims of 
violence - from the FARC, renegade paramilitaries, and common 
crime - the GOC continues to demonstrate its commitment to 
protect labor union leaders and members.  In 2006 alone, the 
GOC's Protection Program assisted over 1,200 trade unionists, 
with over 40 percent of its annual USD 21 million budget 
providing protection measures for them.  In total, the 
Colombian Government also provides protection to over 10,000 
human rights activists, journalists, politicians. witnesses 
and other individuals under threat. 
 
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Positive Economic Outlook 
------------------------- 
 
¶18. (U) Significant gains in security have helped boost the 
Colombian economy.  Colombia,s exports and imports each 
increased more than 20 percent in 2005, and the U.S. is 
Colombia's largest trade partner (approximately 40 percent of 
exports and 28 percent of imports).  Colombian exports to the 
U.S. have grown USD 1 billion per year since ATPDEA's 
inception in late 2002, while U.S. exports to Colombia 
increased approximately USD 2 billion.  The largest U.S. 
investors - Drummond (coal), ChevronTexaco and ExxonMobil - 
are planning considerable expansion due to the improved 
investment climate.  In the third quarter of 2006, Colombia's 
gross domestic product (GDP) increased by 7.7 percent. 
Inflation in 2006 was 4.5 percent, the lowest rate in 50 
years.  2005 Foreign Direct Investment increased to USD 5.6 
billion, an increase of 50 percent over 2004, and first 
quarter 2006 FDI totaled USD 978 million, which is an 
increase of 6.8 percent over the same period in 2005. 
Unemployment fell from 18 percent when President Uribe took 
office to a little more than 11 percent in October 2006. 
 
¶19. (SBU) On November 22, 2006 Colombia and the U.S. signed a 
Trade Promotion Agreement (TPA).  The agreement will provide 
stronger IP protection and give increased market access to 
key U.S. industrial and agricultural exports.  For Colombia, 
the agreement will create a more attractive investment 
climate, lock in ATPDEA benefits, and expand employment 
opportunities for small and medium-sized business.  The U.S. 
Congress recently approved a six month extension of the 
ATPTDEA to promote tariff relief for Colombian businesses as 
ratification on the TPA moves forward. 
DRUCKER