The pressure which the main paramilitary organisation, Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC), has been applying on groups that have refused to enter the recent demobilisation agreement (WR-03-28), appears to be paying off. On 11 August one of the factions of the holdout Bloque Metro announced that it was defecting and adhering to the Santa Fe de Ralito accord.
The Héroes de Granada faction, which operates in the east of the department of Antioquia, conveyed its apologies to AUC leaders Carlos Castaño and Salvatore Mancuso for the `insults' directed against them by the Bloque Metro leader, Carlos Mauricio García Fernández (aka `Rodrigo' or `00'). They said they had come to differ with the Bloque Metro over `links with drug trafficking' - which is precisely Rodrigo's charge against the AUC leaders - and `the use of landmines'.
First concentration area: Medellín
There may have been no irony intended, but the choice of Medellín - stomping ground of the Bloque Metro - as the first concentration area for surrendering paramilitaries did raise more than a few eyebrows. Last week the city government's political secretary, Jorge León Sánchez, announced that the city had been chosen as the gathering place for the Bloque Cacique Nutibara, estimated to be about 1,000 strong. Though details have still to be worked out, the plan is for this group to be fully demobilised by the end of this year.
The Bloque Cacique Nutibara is a member of the Autodefensas Campesinas de Córdoba y Urabá (ACCU), the core paramilitary confederation around which Carlos Castaño built the AUC.
Army vs paramilitaries
Another paramilitary organisation, the Bloque Central Bolívar (BCB), recently engaged in a turf war with the Bloque Metro, is now being pursued by the army. A clash which took place shortly before these lines were being written, claimed the lives of seven BCB fighters and a soldier in Maceo, Antioquia.
The military had earlier reported that a joint army-navy-police operation in the department of Vichada, close to the border with Venezuela, had `severely disrupted' another paramilitary group, the Bloque Oriental de Frontera (BOF), affiliated with the AUC. Its leader, known as el Patrón, was captured along with 15 fighters, and weapons and money were seized.
Castaño raises extradition issue
AUC leader Carlos Castaño had begun to draw public attention to the most glaring omission of the Santa Fe de Ralito demobilisation agreement: the issue of the US extradition requests pending over him and his lieutenant Mancuso. `The most serious of the difficulties facing the process [of demobilisation], which is also the most important driving force behind it, is the extradition of those of us already requested and the threat hanging over the rest.'
Castaño said that extradition `is a valid mechanism in the fight against drug trafficking, the country's main scourge,' but added that `a minimum of political willingness on the part of the governments of Colombia and the US would allow them to agree diplomatically on a mechanism allowing an atmosphere of confidence for the development of the process, and a ray of hope for those of us who wish to live in peace.'
The AUC leader complained that, despite repeated entreaties, the US government has refused to appoint an official representative at the negotiations between the AUC and the government. `They say they support the process,' he complained, `but insist on extraditing the leadership of the autodefensas.' He suggested that what was needed was a greater knowledge in Washington of `the process of the AUC' -- in other words, a recognition of its role in the fight against the guerrillas.
President Alvaro Uribe, meanwhile, has continued to spread the message that there will be `no impunity' for the paramilitaries, or indeed, any of the illegal armed organisations. There will be, though, `alternative justice' formulas which will substitute `compensatory penalties' for prison terms. These will not be `personalised laws' but `general norms' applicable to both guerrillas and paramilitaries.
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