Colombia to enhance security in violence-frequent Medellin city

[Judi Lynn]

Colombia to enhance security in violence-frequent Medellin city
09:54, September 09, 2010

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos pledged to take measures to improve security in the district 13 of northwestern city Medellin following clashes between criminal bands.

Accompanied by Defense Minister Rodrigo Rivera and top officers of the public forces, Santos visited the district 13 where he met with local authorities to discuss security in the area.

"I think all the good people have to be committed to the success of this integral policy ... that is why the communications between the authorities and community is so important," Santos said.

Santos also praised the hard work by police in the district.

Over the past few months, the authorities had denounced the surge of crimes in the district 13 of Medellin as organized criminal bands fought among themselves.

http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90852/7134895.html

Lotsa luck, Chuckles.

[Judi Lynn]

1. US to help Colombia fight urban crime

US to help Colombia fight urban crime .
Monday, 30 August 2010 11:35 Adriaan Alsema

The United States will help Colombia to combat soaring homicide rates in the country's biggest cities, a U.S. embassy official told Spanish press agency Efe.

According to Narcotics Affairs Director Dann Foott, the United States government is concerned about violence in cities like Medellin and will support Colombia's national police with "equipment, resources and the strengthening of security."
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The destruction of big criminal organizations like the Medellin and Cali cartels in the 1990s, and the AUC paramilitary coalition in the early years of this century, caused the drug trafficking business to become fragmented. The rise of smaller groups trying to control the drug trade responsible for the violence, the U.S. official said.

"My department is working a lot with General Naranjo to try to increase the capacity of the police in the fight against these criminal gangs," said Foott.

Gang warfare has been most violent in Medellin, where in the first half of 2010 1,250 homicides were committed and 2,300 people were forced to leave their homes because of violence or threats, according to data provided by the city's ombudsman.

According to Ombudsman Jairo Herran, Medellin has some 400 gangs, of which 200 are active, and there are a total of 5,000 members.

These gangs "are formed by paramilitaries that never demobilized, by former paramilitaries that entered government reintegration programs and recruited young men," the ombudsmen said.

More:
http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/11574-us-to-assist-in-colombian-urban-crime-fight.html

[Judi Lynn]

2. Medellin asks for help after massive gang warfare

Medellin asks for help after massive gang warfare
Wednesday, 11 August 2010 18:20 Adriaan Alsema

http://colombiareports.com.nyud.net:8090/pics/medellin/medellin_soldier.jpg

Colombia's second largest city Medellin called in help from the national government Wednesday after massive warfare between gangs paralyzed the city's west.

Mayor Alonso Salazar asked newly sworn-in Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos to speed up the process of electing a new prosecutor general, who will be able to adopt special measures to help local authorities combat the soaring murder rate.

Salazar visited the troubled San Javier neighborhood in the west of the city where on Tuesday several members of one gang were executed and combat broke out in the streets. The violence forced inhabitants to stay inside, with 250 children locked inside their school and public transport suspended until long after midnight.

The massive fighting ended after human rights personnel from the Ombudsman's Office, and some 150 policemen and soldiers took control of the neighborhood.

However, some residents accused police and soldiers of being complicit in the violence.

"The same soldiers who are supposedly here to guard the neighborhood stood by and watched while the gangs shot at each other," one resident told Colombia Reports. "Gang members broke down my door and pulled my grandson out of his room and beat him up in the street. Not until several minutes went by did the police take him away and put him in custody."

Seventeen families were forced to flee their houses, fearing retaliation from gangs if they stayed in the neighborhood. Several of the victims testified that gang members threatened to kill anyone who reported that police and soldiers had watched without interfering.

More:
http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/11300-medellin-asks-help-after-massive-gang-warfare.html

[Judi Lynn]

3. Has Incoming Colombian President Santos Inherited a "Captured State"?

Has Incoming Colombian President Santos Inherited a "Captured State"?
By Coletta Youngers, August 6, 2010

On Saturday August 7, 2010, former defense minister Juan Manual Santos will be sworn in as Colombia’s next president, surrounded by an estimated 380,000 members of the police and military and an array of foreign dignitaries. If all goes according to plan, one of those dignitaries will be Ecuador’s president, Rafael Correa. However, Santos’ initial efforts at rapprochement with Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, also invited to the inauguration, were nipped in the bud by sitting president Alvaro Uribe, whose dramatic accusations on July 21 of Venezuelan government tolerance of the FARC (including key leaders) in its territory led to a complete rupture in diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Uribe’s legacy will no doubt be contested for some time. His admirers claim that he finally broke the back of the guerrillas, reigned in the paramilitaries through a demobilization program, and has made the country a safer place to live overall. Some go so far to say that Colombia is now in a post-conflict situation.

That would not be the view, however, of the country's estimated 4.5 million internally displaced persons or the Afro-Colombians and indigenous communities being pushed off their land by right-wing paramilitaries (now conveniently called “criminal gangs at the service of narco-trafficking”) to make way for large-scale economic projects like the monoculture of palm oil and commercial gold mining or those in the squalid urban areas where crime has always been rampant. (And it is worth noting that even in cities like Medellín, crime is on the rise again.)

According to Uribe’s critics (myself among them), his eight-year legacy includes:

•An estimated 16,000 politically-motivated killings, including 4,000 by the “demobilized” paramilitaries.

•A doubling in the number of annual killings by the Colombian security forces, including a “false positives” scandal in which more than 2,000 poor Colombians were presented as guerrillas killed in combat.

•The second highest number of internally displaced persons in the world (the Sudan is first) with ethnic minorities disproportionately affected and with over 40 displaced leaders killed in recent years for advocating for their rights.

•A total of one – just one – paramilitary leader convicted as a result of the Justice and Peace Law.

•A scandal that Washington-based human rights groups call “Worse than Watergate,” in which the notorious DAS security agency was spying on everyone from the children of human rights activists to Constitutional Court judges – and eavesdropping in on the Court’s confidential sessions and sabotaging their activities, including by trying to link them to terrorist groups.

•A complete lack of respect of judicial autonomy and full support for continued impunity for human rights violators.

•Increased inequality, poverty, and unemployment.

More:
http://www.fpif.org/blog/Colombia_alvaro_uribe_juan_santos?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+FPIF+%28Foreign+Policy+In+Focus+%28All+News%29%29

[Judi Lynn]

4. Colombian judges face threats and murder

Colombian judges face threats and murder
Friday, 23 April 2010 14:38 Cameron Sumpter

Colombia's Supreme Judicial Council warns of threats to the country's judiciary, with three judges assassinated in the last two years, and 600 receiving threats over the last four years, reports Semana.

Judge Diego Fernando Escobar was gunned down Thursday outside his home in Medellin.

"In the last two years have been killed three judges and a court official and an attempt was made against a Cali judge ... But the worst for us is that there have been constant threats for the past four years, rising to 600" said Judge Hernando Torres of the Supreme Judicial Council.

President Uribe condemned the assassination and offered a reward of COP100 million for information about those who masterminded the crime.

“This is an wake-up call to the national government to protect the justice system to guarantee the civil liberties of the population,” said Judge Hernando Torres, chairman of the Administrative Chamber of the Supreme Judicial Council.

There had been "threats to their family and property, personal threats, threats to bring processes of various kinds, and threats to resources that they give to illegal groups,” according to Torres.

Among those threatened were judges of the Supreme Court, who have been responsible for uncovering links between politicians and paramilitaries, according to Torres.

The Supreme Court judges have also been the victims of illegal wiretapping by Colombia's security agency (DAS).

President of the Supreme Judicial Council, Francisco Escobar, said that budget problems made it difficult for judges to protect themselves.

Escobar said that it was the responsibility of the government and national police to ensure the safety of the judges and in turn the effectiveness of the justice system.

More:
http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/9329-colombian-judges-face-threats-and-murder.html