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TITLE: COLOMBIA HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES, 1993
DATE: JANUARY 31, 1994
AUTHOR: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
COLOMBIA
Colombia is a constitutional, multiparty democracy long
dominated by the Liberal and Conservative parties. The M-19
guerrilla movement, which became a legal political party,
Democratic Alliance M-19 (AD/M-19) in 1990, fielded a
presidential candidate and several congressional candidates in
1993. A small Socialist party, Patriotic Union, also
participates in national politics. The next national elections
will be held in May 1994. Until August, the country was under
a state of emergency declared by President Cesar Gaviria in
late 1992. This allowed the President to issue decrees on
public order matters normally requiring legislative action.
During the fall session, Congress debated many of these decrees,
with the participation of human rights groups, and incorporated
some of their provisions into permanent legislation.
Internal security is the primary responsibility of the Ministry
of Defense, which in addition to the armed forces, includes the
National Police (CNP). The Department of Administrative
Security (DAS), which is responsible for national security
intelligence, reports directly to the President. Elements of
the police and the armed forces remained responsible for
widespread human rights abuses.
Colombia has a mixed economy in which the private sector has
assumed an even more dominant role as a result of the economic
liberalization program introduced by the Gaviria Government.
Crude petroleum rivals coffee as the principal export. The
privatization of selected public industries continued, with
three banks and a number of smaller enterprises sold by the
Government during the year. Narcotics traffickers continued to
control extensive economic interests.
Colombia's engrained democratic tradition has survived despite
high levels of internal violence. For 8 months in 1993 and
35 of the past 42 years, the Government operated under states
of emergency which gave the executive a wide range of powers to
issue decrees, some of which impinged on the basic rights of
citizens, in order to deal with civil unrest associated with
internal violence. Narcotics traffickers, leftist guerrilla
groups, and rightwing paramilitary groups--the last of which
sometimes act with the support or acquiescence of local or
regional military or police units--committed the majority of
human rights abuses. However, the army and police appeared to
be jointly responsible for almost as many violations as the
combined nongovernmental groups.
Narcotics traffickers frequently resorted to terror in attempts
to intimidate the Government and the general population. They
continued to disseminate false information about official human
rights violations in an effort to undermine the Government's
credibility. Narcotics traffickers and guerrillas cooperated
extensively. The commander of the armed forces estimated that
60 percent of the revenue of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia (FARC) in two provinces came from drug trafficking.
Individual members and units of the police and army were
responsible for extensive human rights abuses including
extrajudicial killings, disappearances, torture, and arbitrary
detention. As acknowledged by the Attorney General and the
National Human Rights Ombudsman, a major reason for the high
level of abuse was the virtual impunity with which most took
place. Targets of abuse in rural and urban areas by the
security forces included workers, politicians, labor
organizers, human rights monitors, and, most frequently,
peasant farmers in guerrilla territory. Violence and economic
discrimination against women remained commonplace.
The Government actively sought to improve its human rights
record and effect reform, passing a comprehensive police reform
law establishing a civilian Police Commissioner's Office and a
National Advisory Board. It remains to be seen whether these
efforts will reduce police and military abuses. The Office of
the Defender of the People remained underfunded, while the
Procuraduria, an independent government watchdog agency,
conducted some investigations and imposed sanctions on a few
state agents implicated in human rights abuses. The armed
forces initiated a human rights awareness campaign at the end
of the year, creating a special office staffed by civilians to
advise the joint chiefs of staff on human rights issues and to
develop training materials and programs.
RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
Section 1 Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including
Freedom from:
a. Political and Other Extrajudicial Killing
The overall murder rate in Colombia increased for the second
year in a row in 1993. Bogota's leading newspaper, El Tiempo,
cited 15,000 murders attributed to all sources throughout the
country in the first 6 months of 1993, as compared to 11,000
for the same period in 1992. Due to insufficient police and
judicial resources to investigate and prosecute most killings
and the frequently overlapping violent forces at work, it is
often difficult to separate political from nonpolitical murders.
The Center for Investigations and Popular Education (CINEP),
Bogota's Jesuit-affiliated human rights and social welfare
research center, reported a total of 581 politically motivated
murders for the period from January through September 1993,
compared with 873 for all of 1992. Of these, 159 were
attributed to members of the state security apparatus, 37 to
paramilitary groups, 242 to the guerrillas, and 143 to unknown
perpetrators. According to the Andean Commission of Jurists
(CAJSC), 437 cases of politically motivated killings were
reported between January and June 1993, with another 755
killings presumed to have been politically motivated. CAJSC
also stated that, during the full year, an average of 11 people
per day were killed in politically motivated attacks, a figure
almost identical to that of 1992. In December a press report
cited a figure of 649 political killings in Colombia for the
year. The report also stated that the department of Antioquia
had the highest incidence of this violence, with a total of 230
such killings.
The armed forces continued to be responsible for extrajudicial
killings, including one reported massacre. Lt. Colonel Luis
Becerra was dismissed from the army and placed under
investigation by the Attorney General for his alleged role in
the October 1 massacre of 13 unarmed peasants in Rio Frio by a
paramilitary unit. Unit members also raped six women among the
peasants before killing them, and there were signs of torture.
An army unit under Becerra's command was reported to have
placed weapons on the peasants and dressed them in guerrilla-
style uniforms after the massacre. There were credible reports
that Becerra was tied to the 1988 killings of 23 purported
guerrillas who later turned out to be unarmed banana workers.
The Permanent Committee for the Defense of Human Rights
reported an increase in massacres over the past 12 years,
citing 176 massacres with 857 victims in 1992. The report
assigned responsibility for about 10 percent of the massacres
during this 12-year period to government forces.
In April members of the 2nd Mobile Brigade allegedly tortured
and executed high school teacher Parmencio Bonilla, cattleman
Jairo Arguello, and laborer Roberto Alvarado in El Mordisco,
Arauca department. According to witnesses, guerrillas ambushed
a military patrol shortly before these three were captured;
area residents reported that none of the three had ties to the
insurgents. There were credible reports that the army executed
two guerrillas who represented the Socialist Renewal Current
faction in negotiations with the Government and that the local
authorities attempted to cover up this extrajudicial killing.
The Procuraduria reported that five investigations of alleged
human rights violations committed by the military were
completed between January and August, resulting in
administrative sanctions against 14 service members. Charges
against nine servicemen were dropped.
Members of the CNP also committed extrajudicial killings.
CINEP linked CNP agents to a total of 21 of these killings
through September, noting that this number had dropped from 40
the previous year. In September the Procuraduria charged a
police captain and five agents of the Criminal Investigative
Unit (SIJIN) in Narino department for their participation in
the summary execution of five people in Catatumbo in March
1992. The five, suspected of having attacked buses along the
Pan American highway, were detained but never brought into
custody or charged. The bodies of the victims showed signs of
torture, and there was no indication that they were armed at
the time of their detention. In March a 9-year-old girl was
found strangled in a Bogota police station after having been
sexually assaulted. In the wake of the crime, CNP Inspector
General Humberto Maldonado and Operations Director Nassim Diaz
were dismissed, along with several other high-ranking officers.
This incident was also cause for a rapid acceleration in
drafting the police reform bill that was signed into law in
August, and galvanized public opinion as to the dire need for
institutional reform of the CNP. The murdered child's father,
himself a police agent, was initially detained as a suspect but
was later released. A continuing investigation had not
produced any new developments by year's end.
CINEP reported 118 incidents of "social cleansing" between
January and September throughout most major cities, which
represented a slight decline from the previous year. This
activity involves attacks and killings, often by off-duty
police, directed against groups deemed socially undesirable,
i.e., prostitutes, homosexuals, indigent street people and
street children (see Section 5), drug addicts, and panhandlers.
Many of these victims were rural peasants forced to flee
military and guerrilla violence in their native regions who
migrated to the cities in search of improved economic
opportunities. Merchant or vigilante citizens' groups are
alleged to sponsor the attacks; off-duty police agents or
contract killers are the most frequently accused perpetrators
of these murders. The October beating death of an indigent
street poet in Bogota at the hands of police catalyzed public
outcry, and a crowd of 3,000 turned his funeral into a peace
march. Two policemen were in custody and under investigation
for this killing.
The Procuraduria reported that the Special Investigative Unit
formed by the Prosecutor General's Office (Fiscalia) in 1992 to
investigate these occurrences found one police officer and two
agents linked to incidents but did not find sufficient evidence
to suggest that there was official police complicity in
organized attacks against a specific class of citizens. It
determined that the three members of the CNP acted for personal
motives; their cases were referred to the Attorney General's
Office for Police Affairs, where they remained under
investigation at year's end.
The Bogota Human Rights Ombudsman associated with the National
Office of the Defender of the People issued a report in
September decrying the increased incidence of "social
cleansing." The report very clearly accused elements of the
police of tacit complicity in these cases and cited 12 murders
as well as hundreds of lesser abuses, such as physical
aggression and harassment by police or police-sponsored groups.
The inquiry into the 1991 death of journalist Henry Rojas
continued. A former Arauca mayor and an army colonel who had
been exonerated in May were rearrested in September. The
Procuraduria investigation was still pending at year's end.
The Simon Bolivar Guerrilla Coordinating Board stepped up
attacks against the military in the early fall during its
"black September" campaign. In separate attacks against police
and military convoys in Usme and Antioquia, FARC guerrillas
killed 13 policemen and 13 soldiers, respectively. Survivors
of the two attacks reported that the guerrilla attackers first
dynamited the convoys and then bayoneted or shot the wounded at
close range. Press and human rights sources reported that 264
members of the police and armed forces died while on active
duty during the year.
Guerrillas were also responsible for many extrajudicial
killings. Members of a dissident faction of the Army of
Popular Liberation (EPL) assassinated a well-known, outspoken
peace activist, Father Javier Cirujano, in May in San Jacinto,
Bolivar. His accused killer, Ariel Contreras, was arrested by
DAS agents in September. Other, less notable victims included
those who refused to submit to extortion, those suspected of
collaborating with the Government or military, and, in
particular, those former guerrillas who deserted the subversive
movements to reintegrate themselves with the noncombatant
population under the Government's "reinsertion" plan. In
September FARC members killed the parents of a soldier when
they became lost on their way to visit him and stumbled into
rebel territory.
Nationwide, policemen continued to be murdered by drug
traffickers, terrorists, guerrillas, and common criminals,
although the number dropped significantly from the previous
year. According to official police statistics, 177 police
officials were killed from January through September, compared
to 620 in 1992. Of these 177 deaths, 36 were attributed to
narcotics traffickers. In November National Liberation Army
(ELN) guerrillas assassinated Colombian Senate Vice President
Dario Londono in Medellin. He was chairing congressional
debate on public order legislation at the time. Following his
murder, the ELN published several open letters that stated that
other congressmen who supported the legislation would be
targeted as well. Also in November, the body of Italian
Honorary Consul Guisseppe Suarigia was discovered several
months after he had been kidnaped by the FARC in Bucamaranga.
In November alone, press reports estimated that upwards of
70 banana workers were killed in Uraba. Accounts indicate that
the killings were most likely perpetrated by EPL guerrillas
against "reinserted" former subversives. Two weeks later the
FARC openly assassinated another 20 or so reinserted workers,
arriving at the plantations in force with death lists in hand
and executing the laborers in front of their fellow workers.
Narcotics-related terrorism remained at a high level during the
first several months of 1993 but tapered off during the second
half of the year. Before government forces tracked him down
and killed him on December 2, fugitive drug kingpin Pablo
Escobar conducted a random bombing campaign in Medellin and
Bogota, intended to force the Government to grant him favorable
terms of surrender. The attacks culminated in April with the
explosion of a powerful bomb in a fashionable Bogota
neighborhood that left 11 dead and over 200 wounded. Escobar
was also believed to be responsible for ordering the deaths of
over 140 policemen since his escape in July 1992. In October
an ELN bomb attack in central Bogota against a police bus
claimed the lives of 2 policemen and wounded 17 other police
and civilian bystanders.
A shadowy paramilitary group dedicated to the elimination of
Pablo Escobar and his Medellin-based trafficking organization
conducted a series of terrorist attacks, mostly aimed at
Escobar's family and associates. The group, known as the
"Pepes" and led by the well-known paramilitary chief Fidel
Castano, conducted spectacular attacks on Escobar's properties
and assets. Despite the group's public announcement in April
that it would disband due to government opposition to its
activities, killings of Escobar defense attorneys and
associates continued. Two days before Escobar's death, the
group announced it would resume its activities. It claimed
responsibility for the killing of an Escobar relative on the
same day that the drug kingpin was killed by the military.
In general, paramilitary activity declined during the first
part of the year but, according to press reports, began to
resurface in the latter half of 1993. The national weekly,
Cambio 16, reported the return of irregular armed militias
sponsored by ranchers and often tacitly supported by regional
armed forces in the conflict-ridden region of Uraba.
Paramilitary groups, including associates of deceased
paramilitary leader Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha, were responsible
for a series of killings, incidents of torture, and
disappearances among rural peasants in the Yacopi area.
b. Disappearance
Security forces continued to be responsible for disappearances.
The Procuraduria received 47 reports of disappearance alleged
to have been perpetrated by the police or military between
January and August that included 62 total victims. Forty-two
of these cases are still in the preliminary investigative stage,
and three were dismissed. There were no sanctions administered
during this period. One case under investigation was the April
19 disappearance of human rights activist Delio Vargas, last
seen being forced into a vehicle driven by an army intelligence
operative.
Given the complexity of Colombia's internal order situation and
the variety of agents, both state-sponsored and criminal,
involved in this struggle, the line between political
disappearance and kidnaping for profit is often unclear.
Combining all sources, however, Colombia suffers from one of
the world's highest rates of forced abductions. Disappearances
attributed to the police and military came under increasing
government scrutiny, and a bill was submitted to the Congress
that would clearly define and codify forced disappearance as a
crime distinct from kidnaping. The chairman of the
congressional committee studying the bill indicated that there
were 266 allegations of disappearances pending before the
Organization of American States in 1993. According to CAJSC,
of 98 reported disappearances in the first half of 1993, 34
percent were attributed to state security agents, 14 percent
were associated with paramilitary groups and 52 percent were
perpetrated by unknown authors. CAJSC noted a drop in the
figure for military participation from the previous year but a
corresponding rise in the rate of paramilitary involvement with
disappearances.
c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment
Although torture is prohibited by law, incidents of police and
military beatings and torture of detainees continued, especially
in the period immediately following detention and prior to
long-term incarceration. CINEP recorded 13 cases of torture
alleged to have been perpetrated by security forces, down from
31 the previous year. The Procuraduria reported that a total
of 42 cases of torture alleged to have been committed by
members of the police and military were investigated between
January and August. Administrative sanctions were imposed on
7 police and 10 members of the armed services for incidents
involving torture during that time. In August Gilberto Jurado,
the Secretary of Public Works in Fortul, Arauca, and a member
of the Patriotic Union Party, was detained and beaten by members
of the army's Reveiz Pizarro Battalion. His torturers denied
him medicine he requires daily and submitted him to a mock
execution. Jurado was saved by the intervention of the regional
human rights ombudsman who was able to secure his release and
have him brought to a hospital. The specific motive for the
attack is unclear; it is not known if any investigation is
being conducted against the military perpetrators.
The paramilitary groups that operate in the countryside
routinely torture victims before killing them. Torture is also
a common guerrilla and narcotics terrorist practice.
Unresolved cases were reported throughout many departments in
which decapitated bodies were found with the hands and feet
severed to prevent identification of the victim.
Overcrowding in Colombia's prisons is a serious problem that
caused poor sanitary and health conditions in many institutions
and drew harsh criticism in September from Prosecutor Attorney
General Gustavo de Greiff. The prison system, designed to
house some 27,000 people, stood at 110 percent of occupancy in
1993, with roughly 30,000 inmates.
d. Arbitrary Arrest, Detention, or Exile
The Constitution includes several mechanisms designed to
prevent illegal detentions. A detainee must be brought before
a judge within 36 hours and has the right to seek, before any
judge, a petition of habeas corpus that must be acted upon
within 36 hours. Despite these legal protections, instances of
arbitrary detention occurred, although according to CINEP,
there were far fewer cases reported in 1993 than the previous
year. The Procuraduria investigated cases involving alleged
victims of arbitrary arrest or detention and levied
administrative sanctions against members of the police and
servicemen. The International Committee of the Red Cross
(ICRC) reported that it had made a significant advance in
gaining access not only to prisons but to certain military and
police provisional detention centers.
Exile is not practiced.
e. Denial of Fair Public Trial
The right to due process is specifically provided for in the
Constitution. The accused have the right to representation by
counsel, but historically representation for indigents has been
woefully inadequate. To address this situation, the
Government's Office of the Defender of the People began a drive
to establish an expanded public defender program. Due to a
reluctance to grant bail, many detainees never come to trial;
they simply remain in pretrial detention until they have been
incarcerated for the time stipulated for the minimum sentence
applicable to the crimes they are alleged to have committed.
The judiciary remained overburdened and struggled to delineate
its functions in the wake of the 1991 constitutional changes.
It is independent of the executive and legislative branches in
theory and largely in practice. The judiciary has long been
subject to intimidation when dealing with narcotics trafficking
and paramilitary cases. Magistrates, judges, attorneys, and
prosecutors were suborned, threatened, assassinated, or had
family members killed in connection with certain cases. In an
attempt to provide increased judicial protection and
specialization in these cases, in 1991 the Government
established a special jurisdiction for narcotics, terrorism,
and public corruption cases. There are five such "regional
jurisdictions" in which anonymous judges and prosecutors handle
all major trials of narcotics terrorists. Law enforcement
agencies' investigative powers were strengthened under this
system, and conviction rates rose dramatically. According to
public opinion polls, Chief Prosecutor Gustavo de Greiff became
the most respected public official in the Government during
this time.
The regional jurisdiction system nonetheless gave rise to a
series of due process concerns. The regional prosecutors were
overwhelmed by staggering caseloads, which in turn led to long
delays in issuing indictments. In August the Constitutional
Court struck down a provision of the law by which the regional
jurisdiction courts were able to suspend detainees' rights to
provisional release and bail. Some 5,000 drug and terrorist
suspects stood to be released under provisions of the Criminal
Procedures Code. President Gaviria issued a last-minute state
of emergency decree which temporarily prevented the release.
According to the Director of Prisons, some 10,000 detainees
linked to special jurisdiction cases remained in prison without
being indicted in 1993.
Defendants in the regional jurisdiction system lack important
procedural rights contained in the Constitution. For instance,
it is extremely difficult for a defense attorney openly to
impeach an anonymous witness. Due to the anonymity of the
judge and prosecutor, it is also quite difficult for a defense
attorney to bring charges of malfeasance or corruption against
either state official. The anonymity of the judges,
prosecutors, and key witnesses led many defense attorneys and
human rights groups to accuse the courts of railroading
suspects. A revision of the Criminal Procedures Code removed
the restriction on defense teams copying documents used as
evidence by the prosecution.
Critics also charged that the special jurisdiction courts were
used to try persons involved in nonterrorist activities but who
commit a violent act that technically brings them within the
scope of these courts. In one case, 13 telephone workers were
detained for investigation by special jurisdiction courts on
sabotage charges related to an April 1992 national strike.
After criticism by labor and human rights groups, the Fiscalia
later decided to try them in ordinary criminal courts.
f. Arbitrary Interference with Privacy, Family, Home, or
Correspondence
A judicial order is generally required for authorities to enter
a private home, except in cases of hot pursuit. There were
widespread violations of legal norms regarding searches in
remote regions, but in urban areas the sanctity of the home was
generally respected. The Procuraduria did not receive any
reports of illegal searches by state officials between January
and September 1993. This might be explained partially by the
fact that the Fiscalia was vigilant in requiring police to
obtain search warrants, especially in high visibility cases
such as the extensive manhunt for Pablo Escobar in Medellin.
Telephone wiretaps and the interception of mail must be
authorized by a judge. This protection extends to prisoners
incarcerated in the penal system.
g. Use of Excessive Force and Violations of Humanitarian
Law in Internal Conflicts
There were no reports in 1993 that military aircraft targeted
civilians in antiguerrilla operations. Human rights groups,
nonetheless, continued to insist that civilian populations in
known guerrilla territory were purposely targeted during
military operations. The military denied this accusation and
maintained that its operations did not deliberately target
noncombatants, although they recognize that injuries among the
civilian population occurred.
Mines laid by both the military and guerrilla forces in areas
of conflict were responsible for maiming and killing hundreds
of civilian noncombatants. The guerrillas continued their
attacks on oil pipelines and power stations. CAJSC published
two detailed reports on human rights abuses in Putumayo and the
Magdaleno Medio region in which they reported that it is common
practice for the army's mobile brigades to force civilians to
wear camouflage uniforms and precede patrols in dangerous or
mined areas.
Section 2 Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
a. Freedom of Speech and Press
These constitutionally protected rights are respected.
The press regularly criticized the Government without
recrimination. The privately owned print media published a
wide spectrum of political views, many of which take harsh
antigovernment positions. Television frequencies and
facilities are owned by the State which leases air time to
private production companies. The Government imposes some
restrictions on the television coverage of terrorist activity,
and reserves the rights to prohibit broadcast media from
covering certain news events during states of emergency. Human
rights groups charged that these restrictions were unnecessary
and restricted the exercise of free speech through the 8 months
of the year during which the state of emergency was in effect.
"Tutela," which is a judicial injunction or motion that can be
brought before any judge seeking immediate redress for
violations of basic constitutional rights, theoretically
provides all Colombians with a constitutional means to denounce
perceived injustices freely. In a few instances, tutela has
been employed against the press by persons who felt that they
had been slandered. In general, however, the justice system
and the administration have been attentive not to curtail free
speech by means of unjustified recourse to tutela.
During 1993 violence directed against journalists appeared to
decline somewhat but did not disappear completely. In February
the editor of a Cucuta newspaper, Eustorgio Colmenares, was
murdered, allegedly by members of the ELN.
Academic freedom in Colombia is generally accepted by the
Government, and there exists a wide spectrum of political
activity throughout the country's universities. Teachers at
the elementary and secondary levels in guerrilla-controlled
territory are often subject to threats and intimidation from
local subversive operatives and are unable to resist guerrilla
propaganda campaigns.
b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association
The Constitution provides for freedom of peaceful assembly and
association, and the Government respects these rights in
practice. Public meetings and demonstrations are normally held
without interference. Permission is required for demonstrations
and is usually granted except when the Government concludes
that there is imminent danger to public order. Any
organization is free to associate with international groups in
its field.
c. Freedom of Religion
The Constitution provides for complete religious freedom, and
there is little religious discrimination in practice. In March
the Constitutional Court declared unconstitutional portions of
the 1973 Concordat with the Vatican, which requires Catholic
religious training in public schools, and abolished this
provision. Mainline and evangelical Protestants constitute
between 3 and 6 percent of the population. The Government
permits proselytizing among the indigenous population, provided
the Indians welcome it and are not induced to adopt changes
that endanger their survival on traditional lands.
d. Freedom of Movement Within the Country, Foreign
Travel, Emigration, and Repatriation
Citizens are constitutionally assured the right to travel
domestically and abroad. In areas where military operations
against guerrillas are under way, civilians were required to
obtain safe-conduct passes from the military; guerrillas
reportedly used similar means to restrict travel in areas under
their control.
Peasants were often forced to leave their farms due to military
counterinsurgency operations, guerrilla and paramilitary
conscriptions, and narcotics trafficking violence. The
nongovernmental U.S. Committee for Refugees reported that an
estimated 300,000 Colombians could be considered internally
displaced.
Emigration is unrestricted, and expatriates may, by law,
repatriate.
Section 3 Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens
to Change Their Government
Citizens exercise this right in regular elections that have
historically been considered fair and open.
Presidential elections are held every 4 years. The Liberal and
Conservative parties are the most competitive, with one or the
other customarily winning the presidency. The President may
serve only one term and may not be reelected. All citizens are
enfranchised at age 18. Public employees are not permitted to
participate in political campaigns but, with the exception of
the military, may vote. All parties operate freely without
government interference.
There are no legal restrictions, and few de facto ones, on the
participation of women or minorities in politics. There are
7 female senators and 13 female representatives serving in
Congress and several top government officials, including the
Foreign Minister and the Minister of Education, are women.
Women also hold key positions in the judicial branch and the
prosecutor general's office. Two seats in the 102-seat
Congress are reserved for representatives of the indigenous
population, and a third indigenous citizen holds an at-large
seat. There is growing self-awareness and political activism
among the indigenous peoples of Colombia.
Section 4 Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations
of Human Rights
The Center for Investigations and Popular Research (CINEP), the
Andean Commission of Jurists, the Regional Committee for the
Defense of Human Rights (CREDHOS), the Intercongregational
Commission for Justice and Peace, and the Permanent Committee
for the Defense of Human Rights are among the prominent human
rights groups active in Colombia. These organizations maintain
data banks on human rights and produce regular reports and
publications showing the results of their investigations into
human rights abuses. Often these reports are highly critical
of the Government and denounce its lack of zeal in conducting
official investigations and disciplining implicated state
agents.
These and similar groups functioned unimpeded by official
government interference but were at times the victims of
threats and intimidation by paramilitary groups or individual
members of the police or military. Some of the members of
CREDHOS, for example, were forced to leave the country in 1992
following the murder of two of their associates; they returned
to Colombia in 1993 but work under different names in a
different city due to security considerations.
The Procuraduria is charged with protecting citizens from
abuses of human rights and investigating allegations of state
complicity in cases of abuse or violation. The Defender of the
People has the constitutionally assigned duty to ensure the
promotion and exercise of human rights, but this office is
severely underfunded and not effective. The President has a
Special Advisor for human rights issues who investigates
allegations of abuse and engages in the dissemination of human
rights education and information.
All three of these offices collaborate extensively with local
and international human rights organizations. Government and
nongovernmental organization (NGO) seminars and programs study
the causes of violence and human rights violations.
Section 5 Discrimination Based on Race, Sex, Religion,
Disability, Language, or Social Status
Women
The Constitution declares that "men and women have equal rights
and opportunities. Women may not be subjected to any form of
discrimination." It also specifically requires authorities to
"guarantee adequate and effective participation by women at the
decisionmaking levels of public administration." Long before
implementation of the new Constitution, moreover, Colombian
legislation had guaranteed women extensive rights.
Despite these constitutional guarantees, discrimination against
women still exists, especially in the rural sectors of the
country. While legally entitled to remuneration equal to that
of men, in practice women earn 30 to 40 percent less than their
male counterparts. Women comprise 41 percent of the country's
active economic population, but men dominate the top positions
in government and private industry. As in past years, however,
women continued to constitute a growing percentage of the
university population, now almost equal to men, and increased
their participation in a wide variety of traditionally
male-dominated professions.
According to Pro Mujer, a Bogota-based women's organization
that assists victims of violence directed against women,
statistics on sexual assault are incomplete and unreliable.
Only a small percentage of rape cases are ever reported, and
even fewer are brought to trial. The Government, through the
Colombian Institute of Family Welfare and the Office of the
Presidential Advisor on Women's, Family and Children's Issues,
provides training and education programs in parenting skills,
reproductive rights, and birth control, as well as vocational
training for lower income mothers. Nonetheless, penalties for
abuse directed against women are often not commensurate with
the gravity of the assault, and in the poorer urban and rural
areas, both physical and economic discrimination against women
is commonplace.
Children
Colombia has significant constitutional and legislative
commitments to the protection of the rights of children, but
they are flawed in practice. A Children's Code sets forth
principles for the protection of minors and establishes
services to enforce those protections. The Constitution
provides for the fundamental rights of children and states that
the family, society, and the State are obligated to assist and
protect children, to foster their development, and to assure
the full exercise of their rights.
The reality of children's rights is much bleaker. In September
the Procuraduria issued a report showing that the incidence of
violent physical abuse directed against children had risen
dramatically within the past year. An average of four minors
per day were killed by adults in Bogota alone. According to
the Foundation for Andean Children, a Bogota-based group that
caters to the needs of street children, a core group of
approximately 200 children dwell in Bogota's sewer systems.
Thousands of others live on the streets and resort to petty
thievery to support themselves. Most of these children, known
as the "disposable ones," are addicted to intoxicating
inhalants. The Foundation reported, however, that the
situation improved over the past 2 years due to international
pressure, primarily from the European Parliament. There were
no roundup killings of street children in 1993, although in
August posters sponsored by illegal merchant groups appeared in
downtown sections of Bogota threatening such children with
their own funerals.
Indigenous People
There are approximately 80 distinct ethnic groups among the
roughly 800,000 indigenous inhabitants of Colombia, who
constitute 1.5 percent of the population. The Constitution
gives special recognition to the fundamental rights of
indigenous people. Under its provisions, two senatorial seats
are reserved exclusively for indigenous representation and a
special criminal and civil jurisdiction, based upon traditional
community laws, functions within Indian territories. The
Ministry of the Interior, through the Office of Indigenous
Affairs, is responsible for protecting the territorial,
cultural, and self-determination rights of Indians. Ministry
representatives are located in all regions and departments of
Colombia and work with other governmental human and civil
rights organizations to promote Indian interests and
investigate violations of indigenous sovereignty.
A Presidential decree issued in June regulated the creation of
traditional Indian Authority Boards. These boards are entitled
to handle national or local funds and are subject to fiscal
control of the Comptroller General. The decree also gives
these boards the right to administer their respective
territories as municipal entities. Indigenous communities are
free to educate their children in the traditional dialects and
in the observance of cultural and religious customs. There is
a small but growing number of indigenous university students.
Despite protective efforts by the Government, Indians often
suffer at the hands of narcotics traffickers and guerrillas in
their homelands. The Office of the Presidential Advisor for
Human Rights, which has a special section dedicated to the
protection of indigenous rights, reported that attacks by the
FARC on the Coyaima tribe in Tolima department were especially
brutal, and included the burning of entire villages and the
assassinations of Indian leaders. Press reports in November
chronicled persistent attacks by the FARC on members of the
former indigenous guerrilla group Quintin Lame that signed a
reinsertion accord with the Government in 1991. In one such
incident in November, FARC operatives executed Jorge Issac
Vargas, a tribal leader of the Paletara Municipality in Cauca
department, before a local crowd during an indigenous festival.
National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities
About 2 million blacks, primarily residing in the Choco
department, form a racial minority in Colombia, and represent
4 percent of the general population. They are entitled to all
constitutional rights and protections but have traditionally
suffered from unofficial economic discrimination. In an
attempt to rectify the situation, the Government passed an
Afro-Colombian Law which calls for increased government and
private investment in Choco. The law also provides for greater
self-determination at the local and regional levels among the
black population. The police and military also took steps to
increase recruitment of black officers from Choco, creating
special training programs and academy scholarships for black
applicants to the services.
People with Disabilities
The Constitution protects the fundamental social, economic, and
cultural rights of the physically disabled. In 1988 Colombia
became a party to the 159th Agreement on Professional
Rehabilitation and the Employment of the Disabled, as adopted
by the 1983 General Conference of the International Labor
Organization (ILO). There is no legislation specifically
mandating provision of access for people with disabilities.
In 1993 three separate bills were introduced in Congress to
further expand protection for the physically and mentally
disabled. The bills proposed hiring a greater percentage of
employees among the ranks of the disabled; a 5-percent
allocation of the governmental Institute of Family Welfare
budget to programs for disabled minors; and a stipend equal to
one-half the minimum wage to those handicapped individuals who
are unable to support themselves. The bills were still under
discussion at year's end.
Section 6 Worker Rights
a. The Right of Association
The right of workers to organize unions and strike is recognized
by law. The Labor Code provides for automatic legal recognition
of unions which have obtained 25 signatures from a workplace
and penalties for interfering with workers' freedom of
association. It also stipulates the independence of labor
organizations to determine internal rules, elect officials, and
administer activities, and forbids the dissolution of trade
unions by administrative fiat. According to the latest data
available (1992), 886,446 organized workers are members of
2,435 different unions. These groups are free to establish
international affiliations without government restrictions.
The Constitution extends the right to strike to nonessential
public employees and authorizes the Congress to enact
implementing legislation. Before carrying out a legal strike,
unions must negotiate directly with management and engage in
conciliation procedures if no agreement results. By law,
public employees must go to binding arbitration if conciliation
talks fail; in practice, public service unions decide by
membership vote whether or not to seek arbitration.
Two ILO supervisory bodies criticized 10 provisions of
Colombian law in 1993, including: the supervision of the
internal management and meetings of unions by government
officials; the presence of officials at assemblies convened to
vote on a strike call; the suspension of union officers who
dissolve their unions; the requirement that contenders for
trade union office must belong to the occupation in question;
the prohibition of strikes in a very wide range of public
services which are not necessarily essential; various
restrictions on the right to strike and the power of the
Minister of Labor and the President to intervene in disputes
through compulsory arbitration; and the power to dismiss trade
union officers involved in an unlawful strike.
Throughout the year, there were various protests in major
cities against announced layoffs of government workers, the
privatization of several government entities, and the
government-backed social security reform bill. Two ILO
technical experts, invited by the Government to provide advice
on the social security bill, were withdrawn for security
reasons in April. Workers' fear of violence from guerrillas
and narcotics traffickers has reduced the number of
participants in labor demonstrations. In September, after
reports that guerrillas intended to use a nationwide strike to
foment violence, trade unionists called off the strike and
announced a march for peace instead.
Organized labor suffers from a disproportionately high rate of
violence from a variety of sources including the army and
police, illegal paramilitary groups, guerrillas, and common
criminals, and also as a result of internal union struggles.
There have been some complaints of violence by authorities
against trade unionists. These cases are currently under
investigation by the Prosecutor General's office.
Workers at the state-owned oil company went on strike in early
1993. During the negotiations, guerrillas killed an oil
company executive and stepped up sabotage of oil pipelines. In
retaliation for the arrest of a union leader charged with
terrorism, guerrillas kidnaped two company employees who were
later released unharmed. During the year an unknown number of
trade unionists were killed, particularly in the banana-rich
region of Uraba. According to press reports, 70 banana workers
were killed in November and December during an upsurge in
violence that led the Government to station a military brigade
permanently in the area. Jesus Guevara, vice president of the
embattled Banana Workers Union, was killed on January 29 by EPL
dissident guerrillas who opposed his conciliatory stance with
farm owners and his moderate political views. The Secretary
General of the same union, Jose Oliverio Molina, was murdered
in February by unknown assailants. In March banana workers
went on strike to protest the violence. The Government
attempted to remedy the situation by providing increased
financial aid and more security for that region. In April
unknown gunmen killed another important labor leader, Jose
Ignacio Vargas, president of a textile union in Medellin.
Rural peasants have suffered from a rise in drug trafficker and
guerrilla acquisition of prime land in some sectors of the
country, now totaling one-third of the best cattle land,
according to a study by the Agrarian Reform Institute.
Peasants living in these areas were victims of violence from
the new landowners and guerrillas, who also forcibly recruit
peasant youths. These same peasants were also subjected to
human rights violations by the military which perceives them as
guerrilla sympathizers. Many peasants were victims of open
crossfire between guerrillas and the armed forces. An unknown
number of peasant labor organizers were killed in 1993.
The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions alleged
numerous acts of intimidation, abduction, arbitrary arrest,
summary justice, torture, and murder by the security services
or paramilitary forces during 1992-93. These included the
assassination of 45 trade unionists in Barrancabermeja; the
murder of a gold miner from Segovia who had protested the
detention of a union leader by the military; the torture and
hanging of the national leader of the agricultural workers'
union, FENSUAGRO, and the execution of another FENSUAGRO leader
in Magangue by armed men believed to be security forces; the
torture and hanging of two rural workers from Ovejas at
Fusiliers Battalion headquarters; the murder of a rural trade
unionist by the army's Nueva Granada Battalion; the death of a
SINTRENAL union member from La Dorada, Caldas, following his
arrest; and the abduction and torture of a labor leader from
Valle del Cauca, reportedly by an army intelligence unit. It
was not possible to confirm, either with the Ministry of Labor
or NGO's, the complicity of state agents in these cases. It is
also not clear that all of the victims were trade unionists.
The ILO's Committee on Freedom of Association examined seven
complaints containing allegations of threats against the life
and security of trade unionists and the right to collective
bargaining. Its Committee of Experts expressed concern about
the serious climate of violence which made the exercise of
freedom of association difficult. The workers' bench of the
ILO conference in June alleged that 94 percent of the 618
persons detained under the antiterrorist decree in 1992
belonged to trade unions, that more trade unionists were killed
in Colombia in 1992 than in any other country, and that 800 had
been killed since 1987. The workers also protested the arrest
and conviction of trade union leaders for "obstruction of work"
under section 290 of the Penal Code.
b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively
The right of workers to organize and engage in collective
bargaining enjoys constitutional protection. Unions were
successful in organizing larger firms and public services,
which include less than 8 percent of Colombia's economically
active population. High unemployment and weak union
organization have limited workers' bargaining power in the
private sector. Antiunion discrimination or the obstruction of
union association is illegal; this prohibition is enforced by
administrative labor inspections. It is unclear if these
inspections are effective. A few companies have been fined,
and some workers have used the courts to seek redress. The new
Labor Code increased the fines for restricting freedom of
association. The use of strikebreakers is prohibited by law.
However, the Single Confederation of Workers of Colombia (CUT)
alleges that Act No. 50 of 1990 undermines the right to
organize by permitting the practice of short-term labor
contracts and has cited several companies in which workers were
dismissed because of trade union activity, which continue under
examination by the ILO's Committee on Freedom of Association.
The revised Labor Code eliminates mandatory mediation in
private labor-management disputes, and extends the grace period
before the Government can intervene in an effort to resolve
conflicts. Confederations and federations are empowered to
assist their affiliates in collective bargaining.
Colombian labor law also applies to the country's seven free
trade zones (FTZ's). There is no restriction against union
organization in the FTZ's. Several public employee unions have
collective bargaining agreements in the FTZ's of Barranquilla,
Buenaventura, Cartagena, and Santa Marta.
c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor
Forced or compulsory labor is legally prohibited, and this
prohibition is respected in practice. The Constitution
specifically forbids slavery or any treatment of human beings
resembling servitude.
d. Minimum Age for Employment of Children
The Constitution prohibits the employment of children in most
jobs before the age of 14, and the Labor Code prohibits youths
under the age of 18 from requesting employment permits. This
provision is respected in larger enterprises and major cities.
However, the extensive informal economy is effectively outside
government control. A recent Ministry of Labor study reported
that about 800,000 children between ages 12 and 17 work. There
are also many younger children who work in the informal sector
as street vendors, as well as children who work in substandard
conditions in some small coal mines.
e. Acceptable Conditions of Work
The Government annually sets a national minimum wage which
serves as an important benchmark for wage bargaining. The
current level was set by the Government after the national
labor council, a tripartite advisory board, failed to reach an
agreement among government, labor, and private sector
representatives in December 1992. It is consistent with the
Government's anti-inflation policies but falls short of
providing an adequate standard of living for a worker and
family. Over one-quarter of the population earns less than the
minimum wage, which is about $125 (98,700 pesos) per month.
The law provides for a standard workday of 8 hours and a
48-hour workweek. The ILO reiterated its previous requests
that the Government amend the Labor Code to conform with the
Convention on the issue of weekly rest. Lax enforcement of
labor laws is partly due to the small number of Labor Ministry
inspectors and to fear on the part of unorganized workers that
they will lose their jobs.
Workers' occupational safety and health are extensively
regulated, but many such regulations are difficult to enforce
for workers in the informal sector who are not covered by
social insurance systems. The ILO recommended that the Labor
Code be amended to ensure that all agricultural workers benefit
from compensation for industrial accidents. Employees have the
right to ask for Ministry of Labor inspections in cases of
suspected occupational hazards. According to the Ministry of
Labor, workers have the right to withdraw from a hazardous
situation without jeopardy to continued employment. However,
Colombian workers suffered many industrial accidents during the
year, many of them incapacitating, owing to a combination of
low levels of public safety awareness, scant involvement by
organized labor, and lax enforcement by the Labor Ministry.
Charges about improper working conditions in the cut flower
export industry resurfaced during the year. Minister of Labor
officials admitted misuse of chemicals by the flower industry
in the more remote areas of the country but claimed that the
industry as whole followed proper procedures in the use of
chemicals. (###)
[end of document]
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