Peace Timeline: 2002

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

June 26, 2003

Photo: Garry Leech

A 2-year-old boy was killed when a motorcycle bomb explodes in Arauquita. The authorities attributed the crime to the FARC.

According to Colombian press reports, the U.S. Congress has asked the Bush administration to freeze $17 million of Plan Colombia funds until the Colombian government clarifies why it fired General Gabriel Díaz, the former head of the 2nd Division in Atlántico, and how two tons of cocaine disappeared in Barranquilla earlier this month. The freeze would affect all training and equipment for the 18th brigade in Arauca. House Republicans found the State Department's response satisfactory, and the flow of aid promptly resumes.

June 23, 2003

More than 350 members of the Guahibo indigenous group from Tame insist on staying in Saravena after representatives of the Inspector-General's office, the Human Rights Ombudsman's office and indigenous leaders visit their communities and reported that the area in not safe for their return. The Guahibo initially fled the area due to fighting between paramilitaries, the FARC and the ELN.

June 19, 2003

The governor and mayors of Arauca, Saravena, Tame, Fortul, Arauquita, Cravo Norte, Puerto Rondón and other local government employees held a summit to discuss alternatives after the FARC threatened them and ordered them to resign by week's end.

June 13, 2003

In the municipality of Arauquita the army seized 480 kilos of coca paste and destroyed 5 hectares of coca crops.

June 9, 2003

Saravena and seven other Arauca municipalities were left without electricity after FARC bombs knocked down the three electrical towers that supply electricity to the entire department. As a result, regional authorities issue a department wide curfew. [Eltiempo.com & AFP]

June 4, 2003

According to El Tiempo, the opposition to the aerial fumigation program that began in late May has grown due to allegations of damage to forests, legal crops and waterways. The Commander of the Special Antinarcotics Brigade, General Carlos Arturo Suárez, stated that fumigation will extend to the Catatumbo region in Norte de Santander, where there are an estimated 30,000 hectares of coca, and to Arauca where 12,000 hectares of coca are said to exist.