Colombia Launches Informant Plan 

T CHRISTIAN MILLER / LA Times 9aug02

Bogota, Colombia -- A day after guerrilla attacks roiled his inauguration, President Alvaro Uribe responded Thursday by speeding up the rollout of a controversial program designed to turn 1 million people into government informants.

But there were worrisome signs that the Colombian leader's plan for using citizens to plug holes in the state's intelligence network would face challenges from an increasingly sophisticated rebel force that is gaining expertise in urban warfare.

Showing the resolve that has often marked his political career, Uribe made no mention of the mortar barrage that fell on this capital Wednesday, killing 19 people and wounding 60.

Instead, he showed up as planned on Thursday morning at a provincial capital to inaugurate the citizen police program. He then made a surprise announcement that he would meet with Bogota's mayor to plan the enrollment of about 2,000 extra members to help safeguard this city.

The exact nature of the citizen watchdog program, which Uribe calls Plan Meteor, remained unclear Thursday. Some of the watchdogs would provide "army support" or "police support," and, he suggested, they could be armed. Others would simply be citizens who provide information to local authorities. All would be given money for their efforts.

Human-rights groups have sharply criticized the plan, fearing that the informants would become targets for guerrilla attacks and that armed civilians could quickly spin out of control and form paramilitary groups, as they have in the past.

One Colombian analyst noted that similar problems had arisen with private armed groups in the 1940s and 1950s, contributing to a period called La Violencia, a bloody civil uprising in which about 200,000 people were killed.

"Colombian history, it would seem, doesn't move in a progressive line but a vicious circle: We always return to our past mistakes, not to correct them but to perfect them," wrote Oscar Collazos, a leading columnist.

"What he's trying to do is get everybody in Colombia to recognize that they have a stake in beating these people," countered U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick, the leader of a delegation that attended Uribe's inauguration.

The rebels "are murderers. They're undermining the economy."

Authorities said urban guerrillas belonging to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, had launched mortar attacks from two sites Wednesday, apparently using technology gained from the Irish Republican Army.

Three alleged IRA members were captured last year leaving a rebel enclave in southern Colombia. They were charged with teaching explosives techniques to the rebels and are scheduled to be tried this fall.

Both launch sites Wednesday were private homes in middle- to upper-class neighborhoods, places with no history or inclination toward the guerrillas' class-struggle rhetoric. In both cases, the attacks apparently were planned for months without anyone's noticing what was going on.

The first round of mortar fire came about 11 a.m., fired from a home in wealthy northern Bogota. Neighbors told police two women lived at the site. At least 11 shells were fired, apparently aimed at a military school. Two hit a golf course. The rest fell on homes and in streets, wounding 13.

The neighborhood from which mortar shells were fired toward the presidential palace later in the day is firmly middle class.

The elderly man, woman and young man who lived in the home attracted little notice when they moved in about two months ago. The only thing that raised suspicion was that they replaced the apartment's opaque curtains with dark ones that allowed no glimpse inside.

Neighbors occasionally heard tapping on the walls but thought nothing of it.

"I figured they were putting up paintings or something," said a next-door neighbor who did not want her name used. "They seemed normal."

The tapping, however, was apparently a sign of deadly work behind the dark curtains. In a covered patio behind the house, the rebels installed at least 16 homemade firing tubes that police said were made from pipes used in oil exploration. They then wired the tubes, which were packed with gunpowder, to be detonated by remote control with a car battery and a radio signal.

Officials with the Administrative Security Department, the Colombian version of the FBI, said the three had fled before the shells were fired, just before 3 p.m.

At least four of the shells fired, with two striking the presidential palace, located only 100 yards from the congressional building where Uribe was taking the oath of office. Four presidential guards were injured.

The other two shells went astray, with one striking near a homeless shelter in one of Bogota's poorest neighborhoods and killing 15. Three girls, ages 5, 3 and 1, as well as the mother of the 5-year-old, were killed when the second misfired round hit an apartment near the palace.

It was unclear why the other mortars had not gone off.

An Interview With Francisco 'Pacho' Santos 

T CHRISTIAN MILLER / LA Times 7aug02

Los Angeles Times staff writer T. Christian Miller interviewed Colombia's Vice President-elect Francisco "Pacho" Santos at his hotel suite in Bogota, some 24 hours before his swearing in today along with President-elect Alvaro Uribe. Santos, 40, who was kidnapped in 1990 by drug lord Pablo Escobar's henchman, founded the world's only non-profit organization dedicated to helping kidnapping victims. A scion of one of Colombia's most wealthy and influential families, Santos left behind a job at the family's media empire to run for office. He will focus on kidnapping and human rights in his term as the country's vice president. The two issues are of great importance: Colombia accounts for half the world's reported kidnappings. And a grinding internal conflict between leftist guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries and the government generates thousands of civilian injuries and deaths each year.

QUESTION: What are Alvaro Uribe's goals concerning narcotrafficking?
ANSWER: The goal Uribe is committed to do is to do everything to make sure that in four years, Colombia doesn't export a single kilogram of cocaine or drugs. That's a huge task. We might not reach it. But I think Colombia has to decide that that's a priority and has to invest as much money as possible and as much effort as possible to do it. Drug trafficking is destroying Colombian society. Drug trafficking is destroying Colombian democracy. Drug trafficking is destroying Colombian economy. We need to combat it with all the tools we have and all the efforts have. If we don't set a goal as ambitious as that we'll just keeping doing the same things that hasn't given us the results we want. Help from the U.S. can make that goal achievable.

Q: What concrete things can you do to address the country's kidnapping problem?
A: This is something that will not take a short time. We haven't had a policy against kidnapping. We've had uncoordinated efforts and we'll implement a national policy.

Q: What realistically can the U.S. expect to see from the Uribe government in the first year?
A: First, more taxes, to stop the deficit and increase spending in the armed forces. You'll also see pension reform, which is radically needed. And labor reform, to generate more employment. . . . We're going to increase troops, definitely. The promise is to have 100,000 more policemen in four years and 100,000 more professional soldiers in four years. We're going to do that. More than that . . . Colombia doesn't have a strategic security policy and we're going to create one. You have to decide what you want to do. Do you want to control territory? Do you want to control certain territory? Do you want to go after finances? Do you want to do a combination of them? Do you want to go after the heads (of the armed groups). You have to do an assessment of your capacity and in that sense, use it more effectively. We're going to do that

Q: Are expectations to high now in Colombia? A lot of people believe that on Aug. 7, the guerrillas will be finished, drug dealing will be finished.
A: The expectations are to see a different government, a serious government, a government that makes every effort. People realize the most we can do is change the direction the country is going. There are no miracles. We can change the way politic are done, we can change the way the army works, we can make the economy start going again. But that's a first step and it will take four years. A lot of benefits will be reaped by the next government.

Q: Do you have the time, politically, to do this? Do you have four years?
A: No, there's not too much political space. The timing is crucial to get all the reforms in the first year. We know people will be disappointed if in one year, one year and a half, two year, they don't see results they expect. But I think in the long run, in four years, they'll say, "Jesus, this country went in the right direction. It's a different country. It's not what we were feeling then, on the edge of the abyss. You turned around and you started moving away from it.'' I think that people, even though they have high expectations, understand there are no miracles and there is no free lunch.

Q: How are you going to pay for these reforms?
A: There are a lot of reforms in the tax system and increasing taxes and in reducing the size of the government that will give us breathing room.

Q: Is that enough to pay for everything?
A: Oh yes, there is enough. Tax evasions and (hiding of assets) accounts for $3.5 billion (in lost revenue). In the Colombian economy, that's huge. The taxes we'll impose will give us around $4 billion. That's a lot of money. We probably won't get all of it. Maybe we'll do it slowly, but there's room. . . . You need to get the economy growing. With our fiscal deficit, it's going to be very tough. It's a high wire exercise, but it has to be done. You have to reduce the fiscal deficit, you have to increase taxes, but you also have to get the economy moving.

Q: What can the U.S. government do for Colombia?
A: The first thing is that the U.S. has to understand the Colombia is a crucial ally. A crucial ally in the war against drugs. In that sense, it's a government that will go hand in hand with whatever the U.S government needs. We have the same policy. We're going to be very, very tough. The Americans must have no doubt about that. . . . The U.S. has to help Colombia. There could be no better partner than Uribe, a democratic, an efficient politician, honest as hell, dedicated, an impeccable track record. It's a great moment for the U.S. and Colombia to deepen its relationship.

Q: What about those in Congress and the U.S. government who say that Colombia must do more to help itself?
A: Colombia is going to do more. That's why we're improving our tax system. But Colombia has a huge fiscal deficit problem. Colombian politicians have wasted so much money. This is a government that is going to be very austere. We’re having no inauguration ball, no parties, not even a cocktail. That's how it will be for four years. The president has said if we're going to cut benefits and eliminate loopholes, we have to be an example. Uribe is renouncing his own pension. He's decreasing the pay of congressmen, president, the high court. He doesn't talk about things, he does things.

Q: Will Colombia be asking for another Plan Colombia? Another large aid package?
A: We have to assess the situation and work on it. We would love more help definitely. (The recent passage of the ) Andean Trade Preferences Act (which allows certain products from Colombia and other Latin nations to avoid U.S. tariffs) was a huge help.

Q: What about more military support?
A: We'll probably need a lot more training. We'll probably need a lot more mobility. We'll probably need a lot more sophisticated weapons. And we'll probably need more intelligence and communications. We'll fight this war. We're going to do our job. But we need help.

Q: The Congress recently allowed U.S. helicopters donated strictly for anti-narcotic purposes to be used instead for anti-guerilla purposes. What effect will that have?
A: It will help a lot. You talk to pilots and to people working in spraying drugs. They would see the guerrillas right there and they couldn't do anything about it. That's going to be very important.

Q: What will Uribe do to calm fears about his devotion to human rights?
A: Results, results, results. You have to show results. You have to show that he's not what they tried to paint him as being. You will see his reforms and you'll say these are reasonable. This is a state that faces a threat. It needs to strengthen itself to combat that. It's not going to violate human rights, it won't abuse any human rights. It's not doing anything that the United States is not doing. You will start to see results. You'll see a commitment to human rights, you'll see a commitment to combating paramilitaries and guerrillas and to protecting civilians. But there's no miracle there, either. If you look at human rights problems, the main problem is the conflict. The guerrillas and the paramilitaries are doing the most violations of human rights. It's not the army. You have to put that in context.

Q: Will you have a unit dedicated to combating paramilitaries?
A: You have to go combat everyone. You have to combat paramilitaries. But you certainly need what the U.S. calls a personnel disruption program. That means going after the heads. You need to go after the heads. You need to show them they are not invulnerable. You need to show them that the government is ready to go after them.