Peace Timeline: 2002

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

November 28 de 2003
According to army officials, suspected FARC guerrillas tossed a grenade at a soldier near Tame. The attack killed one person and injured three others, among them the soldier and an 11-year-old boy. This attack came hours after another bombing also, in Tame, wounded six people. [Miami Herald]

In his opening remarks at the International Symposium on Petroleum Regulation and Contracting, President Uribe said:
"We still have a long way to go with regard to security in petroleum producing areas. We still have reservations about Putumayo, and we do not control Arauca fully, but rest assured that every day we are making adjustments. The new military high command is not a glamorous one; it is an operative high command, we applied five criteria for their selection: management capabilities, combat capacity, transparency and capacity to coordinate nationally and internationally. Their first set of instructions is to do away with the little terrorist groups that still exist in these areas."

November 21, 2003

Rev. José Rubin Rodriguez, a Catholic priest who had been missing for a week was found shot to death near the municipality of Tame. He is the second priest killed by suspected rebels in a three week period. According to the Bishop of Arauca, Monsignor Carlos Germán Mesa, Rodríguez was detained the FARC on the 14th after participating in a religious conference in Tame.

The Colombian Episcopal Conference has reported that in recent years more than 20 priests have been killed and more than 30 have been kidnapped by the armed actors nationwide. [Eltiempo.com and EFE, Juan Pablo ToroAssociated Press Yahoo! http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20031122/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/colombia_violence_3]

November 10, 2003

Two right-wing paramilitary factions said they would join peace talks with the government but demanded the government dismiss any arrest warrants against them. The Central Bolivar Block and the Conquerers of Arauca, whose combined forces total approximatly 4,500 fighters, told government Peace Commissioner Luis Carlos Restrepo that they would join other paramilitary factions in the peace process. [Associated Press CNN http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/americas/11/09/colombia.peace.ap]

November 5, 2003

Catholic priest Saulo Carreño, along with another woman, was assassinated in Saravena. Carreño was the priest for a church in Saravena and worked for the local hospital. According to the police report, they were shot on their way to the local health center.

The police commander in Arauca said they had yet to identify who committed the crime. [El Pais, Cali]