VZCZCXYZ0007
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHBO #3855/01 2962027
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 222027Z OCT 08
FM AMEMBASSY BOGOTA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 5193
INFO RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA PRIORITY 8451
RUEHCV/AMEMBASSY CARACAS PRIORITY 1219
RUEHLP/AMEMBASSY LA PAZ OCT 9731
RUEHPE/AMEMBASSY LIMA PRIORITY 6677
RUEHZP/AMEMBASSY PANAMA PRIORITY 2539
RUEHQT/AMEMBASSY QUITO PRIORITY 7364
RUEHGL/AMCONSUL GUAYAQUIL PRIORITY 4653

C O N F I D E N T I A L BOGOTA 003855 

SIPDIS 

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/26/2008 
TAGS: PTER PGOV PREL ECON SOCI CO
SUBJECT: TRIP TO CURVARADO HIGHLIGHTS COMMUNITY DIVISIONS, 
SECURITY CONCERNS 

REF: A. BOGOTA 239 
     ¶B. BOGOTA 618 

Classified By: Political Counselor John S. Creamer 
For Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) 

-------- 
SUMMARY 
-------- 
¶1.  (C) The GOC effort to restore land--which has been 
illegally occupied by palm oil firms--to the displaced 
communities of Jiguamiando and Curvarado continues to move 
slowly due to community divisions and legal hurdles.  Despite 
a military presence in the region, security is also a serious 
concern as shown by the murder of community member UcoHoyos
by unknown gunmen on October 14.  Community members charge 
that African palm oil firms--with the backing of some in the 
GOC--are paying some community members in an effort to divide 
the communities and protect the palm firms' interests.  GOC 
officials told us the legal issues in the land dispute have 
largely been resolved in the communities' favor, but said the 
communities now need to obtain a judicial order instructing 
the security forces to remove the firms from their land.  End 
summary. 

¶2.  (U) PolCounselor and Poloff traveled by helicopter to the 
remoteCamelia Humanitarian Zone in Curvarado municipality on 
October 10 to meet with representatives of the Afro-Colombian 
communities of Jiguamiando and Curvarado in Choco department. 
 The meeting was organized by the Inter-ecclesiastic 
Commission for Justice and Peace (Justicia y Paz).  The two 
communities dispute control of the land with thirteen African 
palm firms--some of which have been tied to former 
paramilitary leaders Vicente Castano and Freddy Rendon by the 
Prosecutor General's office (Fiscalia).  The firms began 
exploiting the land after local residents fled paramilitary 
violence in 1997.  Justicia y Paz has played a key role in 
organizing the communities and providing them legal counsel. 

----------------------------------- 
REMAINING STEPS TO LAND RESTITUTION 
----------------------------------- 
¶3.  (U)  The Superintendent of Notarization and Registration 
completed the resolutions revoking the palm oil company land 
titles (reftel A) in September, 2008.  The GOC decided the 
next step is to map out what plots of land are currently 
being occupied, especially by palm oil plantations, to 
facilitate the removal of illegal occupiers and to monitor 
the return of the valuable palm land.  A government and civic 
committee has completed this mapping work in Curvarado.  Vice 
Minister of Interior and Justice (MOIJ) Maria Isabel Nieto 
said the process for mapping in Jiguamiando will start in 
November and will only take two weeks as Jiguamiando only has 
about 200 hectares of palm oil, as opposed to the 4500 
hectares in Curvarado.  She says half of the palm has already 
died from a disease. 

¶4.  (U) Nieto explained that MOIJ is also conducting a census 
of the communities, which will be conducted by consultant 
Andres Calderon, to determine who are the rightful 
inhabitants.  Calderon told us his team completed 
consultations with the communities on the census methodology 
and decided that community leaders would review census forms 
and determine who was a true community member, citing 
documentation when possible.  Calderon said the census would 
begin in November and end in three weeks.  It would also 
involve traveling to neighboring communities to include 
displaced community members who had not yet returned to the 
area. 

¶5.  (C) Ministry of Agriculture (MinAg) Special Advisor 
Catalina Riveros said she is trying to convince the 
communities to file an extraordinary legal action to remove 
the illegal occupiers from the land.  This legal request 
needs to be made by the communities themselves to a local 
court in Apartado.  Nieto said she is confident this legal 
action will lead to a judicial order instructing the 
Colombian National Police (CNP) to remove the palm companies 
from the land, but conceded that an earlier attempt to obtain 
such a legal order by human rights group Justicia y Paz had 
failed.  She speculated that the affected plan firms are also 
using political influence to obstruct the on-going Fiscalia
criminal investigation of their activities. 

¶6.  (C)  ACurvarado councilman told us they distrust the 

GOC, and in particular MinAg, due to ties between the palm 
oil companies and MinAg officials.  A recent press report 
revealed ties between the Fiduagraria President Maria 
Fernanda Zuniga and the palm companies in the area. Zuniga 
served on the board of a palm company occupying land in 
Curvarado and her father is a shareholder in another. She 
denied wrongdoing, but later resigned.  Nieto said the MOIJ 
disagrees with MinAg's insistence that the communities be 
urged to reach a deal with the palm firms that would allow 
continued African palm cultivation.  Many community members 
do not want to be associated with the crop. 

------------------------------- 
HEIGHTENED COMMUNITY DIVISIONS 
------------------------------- 
¶7.  (SBU) Calderon said internal community tensions would 
likely escalate before the upcoming community council 
elections in December.  A community councilman said Curvarado
has 23 minor councils that work under the major council; 
Jiguamiando has 11 minor councils.  He noted that the 
elections would be particularly important, since the elected 
leaders would play a key role in community decisions on what 
to do with the lucrative palm oil plantations.  Nieto said 
the census is important, because it will prevent outsiders on 
the palm oil payroll from participating in the elections and 
electing councilmen favorable to the plan firms.  The 
community council representative from Jiguamiando told us 
they thought the MOIJ census would help deter outside 
intervention, but noted that they had "already conducted 
their own census." 

¶8.  (C) Medellin-based UNHCHR official Felipe Sanchez said 
the communities of Jiguamiando and Curvarado are divided 
between those who support Justicia y Paz and those who do 
not.  He has received complaints that Justicia y Paz has 
brought in mestizos from Cordoba to occupy the Afro-colombian
communal lands.  Uraba CNP Commander Jorge Murillo sharply 
criticizedJusticia y Paz for being conflictive, refusing to 
file formal complaints against aggressors, or to deal with 
local authorities.  He said they are organizing land 
invasions supported by "foreign agitators."  Justicia y Paz 
representative Sister Cecilia Naranjo claimed that the paras
and palm oil companies have started a smear campaign against 
them. 

¶9.  (C)  Nieto told us the anti-Justicia y Paz group is led 
by palm oil-paid Manuel Moya, who also had "long-standing 
paramilitary ties."  Nieto said MOIJ used to treat Moya and 
associates as community representatives, but due to recent 
confirmation of his palm oil ties, it would not longer do so. 
 A Colombian news program Noticias Uno reported that former 
General RitoAlejodel Rio, a former military commander in 
Uraba accused of paramilitary ties, was recorded conversing 
from jail with former MOIJ Minister Fernando Londono.  MOIJ 
Nieto said the recording implicated Londono in the palm 
firms' seizure of the communities' land, and also indicated 
thatMoya and associates AdanQuinto, Jaime Beitar and 
Graciano Blandon have engaged in a smear campaign against 
Justicia y Paz in part because of the group's human rights 
complaints against the Uraba-based 17th Brigade. 

¶10.  (C) In July 2008, the Embassy received a communication 
from the self-described "real" community members of 
Jiguamiando and Curvardo--signed by Moya, Quinto, Beitar, 
Blandon and others--accusing Justicia y Paz of bringing in 
mestizo outsiders and misleading the communities.  MAPP/OAS 
Representative in ApartadoEleuterioCahuec told us Quinto
negotiated the sale of land to Urapalma, Multifruit and other 
palm firms behind the communities' back in the late 1990s. 
He claimed Manuel Moya--with Accion Social's support--is 
playing this role now.  He said the palm companies' strategy 
is clearly to divide and conquer the communities.  MAPP/OAS 
refused an invitation by Accion Social to participate in the 
trips to Puerto Lleras and Pueblo Nuevo, preferring to travel 
to these communities in a less-politicized context. 

¶11.  (C) Accion Social's Mario Gaviria, brother of 
presidential advisor Jose ObdulioGaviria, told us Justicia y 
Paz brought in peasants from Cordoba who are now occupying 
the land to the detriment of the rights of the original 
inhabitants led by Moya and Beitar.  He said many community
members would like to work with the palm companies to 
continue to produce palm oil for a profit, but feel they are 
blocked by Justicia y Paz which has its own ideological 
agenda.  Gaviria said Accion Social is committed to promoting 

social and economic development, but reiterated that their 
work has a "political" component--to win the hearts and minds 
of the communities.  He has identified 450 displaced 
Afro-colombian families from Curvarado/Jiguamiando who now 
live in Apartado. These families' rights must also be 
protected, Gaviria said. 

-------------------------- 
SECURITY REMAINS AN ISSUE 
-------------------------- 
¶12.  (U) Sister Cecilia Naranjo Curvaradoexpressedconcern
about threats to Justicia y Paz and other community leaders. 
On October 14, community leader Uco Alberto Hoyos Rivas was 
gunned down near Cano Manso in Curvarado.  Hoyos was a 
witness in the paramilitary murder of Orlando Valencia, 
another Afro-Colombian leader and advocate for the return of 
the displaced to their lands.  Hoyos was not accompanied by 
his MOIJ protection program bodyguards.  MOIJ has requested 
information from the Department of Administrative Security 
(DAS), the agency responsible for his protection, on how this 
occurred.  This was the second attempt on his life; Poloff
visited him in the hospital after he was shot in September 
¶2007. 

¶13.  (C) Community members from Jiguamiando and Curvarado
voiced concern over military and police collusion with the 
palm oil companies.  Medellin-based CNP Colonel Cardenas told 
us notorious narcotrafficer and former paramilitary Daniel 
Rendon (Don Mario) has a significant presence in the Cuvarado
region.  15th Brigade Colonel Mejia told us his unit 
maintains 150 troops at all times around the humanitarian 
zones in Jiguamiando and Curvarado.  The Brigade does not 
interfere in land issues and makes efforts to build positive 
relationships with the community, including training officers 
on working in humanitarian zones.  CNP Uraba Commander 
Murillo said the CNP has no outposts in these remote 
communities, but maintains 70-person detachments in Belen de 
Bajira and Rio Sucio,  The two posts are about 25 kilometers 
from Cano Manso, where Hoyos was killed.  Jiguamiando totals 
549 square kilometers, with few roads.Curvarado is 460 
square kilometers in size. 
BROWNFIELD 

=======================CABLE ENDS============================