COLOMBIA | Talks to follow kidnap deal. In mid-November peace commissioner Luis Carlos Restrepo announced that a `road map' had been agreed with the guerrillas of the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN) for the release of the foreign tourists kidnapped in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta [SSR-03-03]. Restrepo would only reveal that the deal included `a commitment by the ELN to free all the hostages unilaterally and unconditionally.'
More significant in terms of Colombia's internal conflict, he added that it also included the possibility of a `reactivation of the negotiation' between the government and the ELN — the scenario we identified last month as the likeliest explanation for the ELN's uncharacteristic kidnapping.
COLOMBIA | Paramilitary boss demands immunity. The expected obstacle to the government's demobilisation deal with the paramilitary organisations, the threat of extradition hanging over their top leaders [SSR-03-02], has finally come out into the open. Carlos Castaño, political leader of the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC), has demanded that he and AUC military leader Salvatore Mancuso should enjoy the same kind of immunity Colombia has granted US personnel to shield them from prosecution by the International Criminal Court. He said the AUC was not a `drug-trafficking' organisation but one of `self-defence' and should be treated as such. Castaño also demanded immunity for other leaders representing the AUC in negotiations, after a report from the US suggested that more extradition requests might be filed.
COLOMBIA | Special powers for security forces. The chamber of deputies of the Colombian congress has approved a controversial deal granting special powers to the security forces. These include conducting wiretaps, opening correspondence and other personal communications without a court order, if there is suspicion of terrorist activity; the power to hold suspects without charge for 72 hours; and the mandatory registration of all inhabitants of areas where public order is threatened. A clause introducing press controls was withdrawn due to strong opposition. These powers will expire in four years' time unless extended by congress.
VENEZUELA | Bombing attacks. A Caracas judge has ordered the arrest of three rebel military officers (a general and two lieutenants) on charges of involvement in the bombings, at the beginning of the year, of Colombian and Spanish diplomatic premises. They were implicated in the confession of another detainee.
Investigations are continuing into the string of bombings which began in Caracas on 19 September with a mortar attack on military premises just across the road from President Hugo Chávez 's offices in the presidential palace. In the second, on 4 October, an explosive was hurled from a passing motorcycle at the premises of Conatel, the national telecommunications council. Then, on 5 October a device exploded at the Fuerte Tiuna barracks, seat of the defence ministry and the largest army garrison in the capital; later that day an army fuel truck was bombed at La Carlota airport, causing a second truck to explode, fortunately not close to any aircraft. La Carlota is the seat of the air force and army air arm high commands. There were no casualties in any of these incidents, though some caused considerable material damage.
The government has accused radical elements of the opposition, probably including the same group of rebel military officers. The opposition says the devices were planted by the government in order to justify halting the referendum on Chávez 's permanence in office.
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