Peace Timeline: 2002

U.S. Military and Police Aid - Focus on Arauca and Putumayo:Timeline of Current Events Arauca:
December 2003

December 19, 2003

The Attorney General's Office called members of the Colombia Air Force to stand trial for their alleged role in the Santo Domingo (Arauca) case. Captain César Romero Pradilla, lieutenant Johan Jiménez Valencia and technician Héctor Mario Hernández Acosta are being charged with battery and homicide. On December 13, 1998 18 civilians were killed in Santo Domingo when the Colombian Air Force (FAC), chasing after a FARC column, bombed the population. The U.S. State Department has suspended all aid to the Palanquero air force base, where the Santo Domingo operation was directed from, because of the lack of transparency and the slowness with which the investigation and prosecution of the case had been carried out.

December 16, 2003

On December 14, in the town of Villa del Rosario, Norte de Santander, Severo Bastos, former comptroller of SINTRADIN (INCORA'S Union) in Arauca, was forced out of his home by heavily armed men. Later that day he was confirmed dead when his wife received a phone call asking her to pick up his body. [IndyMedia Colombia http://colombia.indymedia.org/news/2003/12/8314.php]

December 14, 2003

An investigation carried out by the Attorney General's office and the DAS found that a house located four blocks from the Arauca city mayor's office served as the "local administration's illegal clone." The house belonged to Hugo Humberto Vanegas, husband of the departmental treasury secretary, Inés Stella Dueñas Orozco. All contracts from the mayors office were handled, in this house.

Authorities believe that while the house had fewer employees it had more power, it was here that the local government would determine who would receive the contracts, worth millions of pesos, paid by the department's oil royalties. This house is part of a year-long investigation that led to the arrest of Arauca's mayor, Jorge Apolinar Cedeño Parales, and 31 other local leaders.
[El Tiempo (Colombia) http://eltiempo.terra.com.co/judi/14dediciembrede2003/ARTICULO-WEB-_NOTA_INTERIOR-1454536.html]

December 13, 2003

850 Colombian soldiers will be charged with paving the road from Tame to Arauca; 600 soldiers, with support form the Air Force and other ground troops, will be charged with protection of 250 soldiers who will begin paving the road on January 5. [El Tiempo (Colombia) http://eltiempo.terra.com.co/coar/noticias/ARTICULO-WEB-_NOTA_INTERIOR-1454166.html]

December 8, 2003

José Belisario Soler, a member of the city council in Saravena, was shot to death near his home. [EFE]

December 2, 2003

At the 49th Town Council meeting held in Arauca, Victoria Restrepo, director of the Alternative Development Program for Plan Colombia, stated that the Uribe government's "Forest Rangers Program" will hold a preliminary meeting in Arauca.

On December 3, in the city of Arauca the government will present this program to civil, military and religious authorities within the department.

"The objective of the forum is to commit both current and elected mayors by having them sign a letter of intent and design a workplan. The individual contracts will be signed on February 20 in Arauquita and Tame and collective contracts will be signed in Saravena."

One of the main requirements for the plan to move forward is the existence of territorial surveys and titling programs.

Once the program has been presented to the different communities, they must agree to be part of the program by signing a consent form. Then they will sign a collective contract committing each family to eradicating all its illicit crops within 60 days. Those communities that meet the program's requirements will receive 833,000 pesos every two months (5 million pesos annually, or about US$1,750). [CNE (Presidencia de Colombia) http://www.presidencia.gov.co/cne/2003/diciembre/01/23012003.htm]