Latinnews Archive
Latin American Weekly Report - 17 August 1989
Mafia targets the emerald industry; INVESTIGATIONS RAISE NEW QUESTIONS ABOUT MILITARY
Drug trafficker Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha, considered one of the 'most violent giants' of the cocaine trade by US drug sources, is staging a vicious attempt to take control of the mines that produce the world's finest emeralds.
Control of the mines, located between the cities of Muzo and Quipama, in the central Boyaca province, would also allow Rodriguez Gacha to flesh out the last patch of his 'independent republic', a triangle of territory between the city of Pacho, 35 miles north of Bogota, and the middle Magdalena zone and the city of Medellin to the northeast, says Victor Carranza, Colombia's emerald czar.
Carranza, who currently exploits the mines on government contract, said Gacha needs the mines to launder millions in drug money through fictitious gem exports. 'With someone inside the airport or the export company, Gacha could reexport the same 10 emeralds time and time again, laundering millions of dollars each week,' says Carranza, whom some authorities also link to the drug trade.
Several months ago, Carranza and his partners denied Gacha direct participation in their Tecminas and Coexminas mining companies, Carranza said, aborting his plans. Gacha's response, according to Muzo residents, has been a campaign of terror in the area and a string of attacks against people close to Carranza.
'Gacha is furious with me,' Carranza says. 'No-one has ever said no to him before.'
* The offensive
The bloodshed began in February with the assassination of Carranza's partner and emerald king Gilberto Molina (WR-89-10). A private army raided Molina's farm, during a ranch party, and murdered him, five bodyguards and 12 guests.
Since then, paramilitary operations between Pacho and the emerald mines have intensified, miners say. 'They call themselves the self-defence groups of Pacho,' a local schoolteacher said. 'A group of them, mixed with soldiers, kidnapped a man in our hamlet. They tortured him and convinced him to with with "the boss". People say, "the boss has over 15,000 of these private troops at his service".' The 'boss', she confirmed, is Gacha.
'Everyone in the town of Pacho is an accomplice of Gacha,' she added. 'His men walk around heavily armed carrying radio, and the police do nothing.'
Domestic and foreign intelligence sources believe Gacha's private armies are trained by foreign mercenaries, including several former British military men, Israelis and more recently Germans and South Africans. According to peasants in the area, these 'patrollers' are 'better equipped than the army'.
* Isolating the miners
Miners from the Muzo area say Gacha's patrols control the road between Pacho and Muzo. Gacha owns the only bus line travelling between the two towns, and paramilitary checkpoints are set up along the way. Helicopter pilots who used to fly in from Bogota have stopped the service after receiving death threats. Thus, the towns are slowly being isolated, Carranza says, as a preparation for a final offensive from Gacha and his death squads.
On 15 July, paramilitary squads, apparently under Gacha's orders, murdered seven peasants near emerald mines. The same day an airplane flew over the zone, dangling two heaps wrapped in plastic bags. When the plane let the bags drop 400 metres, witnesses said they heard human screams. This 'human bomb' was Pedro Julio Yaya, a community leader close to Carranza. His clothing was in the second bag.
Following this incident, some 5,000 miners staged a protest repudiating the violence and demanding stronger government presence in the zone. They carried signs that read 'Colombia: with Gacha or Barco?', and, 'Gacha -- owner of Colombia's airforce?' 'We are ready to fight to defend the mine if need be,' said one elderly miner. 'This is the only thing that keeps food in our mouths. It is our only salvation.'
In addition to some 350 Tecminas and Coexminas employees, the mines support 10-20,000 guaqueros -- an indigenous term for 'treasure hunters' -- who eke a living from the sludge washed down from Carranza's mining plot.
All hope to pluck a deep green stone from the muck, setting them up financially for years. Some, however, spend months or years making 'just enough for beans'.
* Recent attacks
Attacks against Carranza and his company continued in Bogota in July. The Tecminas mining headquarters was bombed as well as a cattle company owned by Carranza. In the second attack, a car bomb exploded, killing one and wounding several.
On 2 July, hit men attempted to kill Angel Gaitan Mahecha, one of Carranza's right-hand men who had escaped the attack on Molina. Three days later, an elite army and marine force raided a luxurious apartment in northern Bogota, next to the US ambassador's residence. Four people died in the raid, and again Gaitan survived. He told the press he believed that Gacha had ordered the army to blast the apartment.
Preliminary judicial investigations suggested that Gaitan may be right, and that Gacha's influence among the military is strong. Preliminary reports from the investigating magistrate's office said the elite force entered and murdered in cold blood, later moving bodies to simulate combat. Gunpowder tests revealed that the people inside the apartment, all close to Carranza, had never fired at the troops.
The day following the apartment incident, gunmen attempted to kill Gaitan's brother, mayor of the town of Chia, and a week later, Carranza's nephew was assassinated in central Bogota. 'Anyone who disagrees with Gacha is wiped off the map,' Carranza says. 'He wants to be Colombia's Hitler. No one has realised the type of animal we are dealing with.'
* Judge murdered
Meanwhile, Judge Maria Elena Diaz Perez was assassinated in Medellin. Perez was in charge of the investigation of the massacre of 22 farm hands in the Uraba banana region by a paramiliatary squad last March. Her predecessor, Marta Lucia Gonzalez, had indicted Gacha along with Pablo Escobar and three military officers for participation in the massacre. After she issued her report, Gonzalez fled the country because of numerous threats on her life. Perez's investigation had strongly implicated a cattle ranchers' association (Acdegam) as the political front of the most sinister paramilitary networks in the country, in the town of Puerto Boyaca. And, Perez confirmed, Gacha and Escobar both finance the death-squad organisations.
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