Peace Timeline: 2002

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

July 29, 2003

A guerrilla incursion in the township of El Encanto, in rural Pasto municipality, Nariño, has aggravated the delicate situation in the area of La Cocha lake. Continuous fighting between the armed forces and the guerrillas has forced the displacement of 37 families eastward to upper Putuamyo. [El Diario del Sur, Pasto]

July 22, 2003

According to Cali's main newspaper El Pais, Putumayo is a successful example of the year-old Uribe government's security policies. In the municipalities of Orito and Puerto Asís, the newpaper asserts, the number of deaths on a particular weekend reached as many as seven, but today this sum is hardly reached in a week. [El País, Cali]

July 20, 2003

· Eight of the thirteen municipalities in Putumayo have no electricity. The Jacinto Matallana FARC front blew up an electric tower that left all of lower Putumayo with no power. This is the fifth time this year that the municipalities of lower Putumayo are left without electricity.

July 19, 2003

Putumayo's civil society protested recent acts of violence. Governor Iván Guerrero said that recent attacks on infrastructure are deplorable acts that not only affect the local population but the small businessman who is not involved in Colombia's internal conflict. The mayors of Villagarzón, Puerto Asís, Orito, San Miguel, Puerto Leguízamo, Puerto Caicedo and Puerto Guzmán emphasized that the situation in their municipalities is very complicated due to the permanent presence of paramilitaries and the FARC, who are constantly fighting each other and carrying out selective killings, kidnappings and forcing the peasants off their lands. It is estimated that the number of displaced persons in Putumayo is approximatly 20,000.

President Alvaro Uribe announced that he will allocate funds for the construction of the Puerto Guzmán aqueduct. The decision came following his visit to Putumayo last month and assessing the population's needs.

The mayor of Orito, Miguel Alirio Rosero, said he hopes to finish his mandate knowing that the municipality has eradicated all coca. Rosero is a strong advocate of the "zero coca" policy and believes in working together with the farmers in the area to design coca eradication programs. Additionally, he supported the Uribe government's "forest protector families" alternative development program.

July 16, 2003

Death threats forced, judge Francisco Moncayo to leave the municipality of Puerto Asís.

July 15, 2003

In an interview with El Pais, Sandra Suárez, director of Plan Colombia, stated that three years after its [Plan Colombia's] implementation coca production has decreased by 64,000 hectares despite the fact that terrorists continue to stake out territories to grow illegal crops. "These numbers demonstrate that Plan Colombia is working."

She also highlighted that, according to the UN-Colombian government SIMCI monitoring system, by December illegal crops had shrunk 30% with respect to last year, and they continued to moving forward with the voluntary manual eradication programs as has been demonstrated by the forest protector program; where 3,000 families in the municipality of Orito has signed on.

With regard to Orito, Suárez also emphasized that the community has completely eradicated the coca crops in the area where the forest protector program is being implemented. This means, she claims, that 59,000 hectares are coca free in Orito. [El País, Cali]

July 14, 2003

A communiqué on the FARC's web page, recognized the outcries by the Catholic Church, political parties, foreign governments and the people of Colombia to reach a humanitarian exchange accord with the government. In order to begin the process, they demand that the Colombian government demilitarize the departments of Caquetá and Putumayo in order to carry out dialogues with government representatives to discuss the humanitarian exchange. [El Tiempo]

July 7, 2003

After President Uribe's visit to Orito, Governor Iván Guerrero requested an increase in social spending for the region. According to Guerrero, the peasants' will alone has allowed coca cultivation to decrease; in order to maintain the momentum, however, the National Government has to show its support.

July 1, 2003

Troops from the 24th Brigade, have been carrying out operations, with air support, in the rural areas of Orito. While conducting such activities they have come into combat with rebels of the FARC's 48th Front.

The 24th Brigade's 59th Counterguerrilla Battalion found a FARC campsite with capacity for 200 guerrillas and training facilities. [Diario del Sur]

U.S.-trained counternarcotics troops on patrol
in the vicinity of Puerto Asis, Putumayo.
Photo: Garry Leech

The Mocoa Bishop has asked that alternative development promises made to the peasants of the area be kept. He added, "Aerial fumigation is an imposition of North American imperialism."

The Mocoa-Sibundoy bishop stated the illegal crops "are an ill that must be exterminated. But, until coca and poppy are not out of the hearts and minds of those that produce it, we will never see an end to it even if you fumigate. They should invest the huge amounts of money used for fumigation in aid to the community."

At the same time the government, through the Minister of Agriculture, told the Bishops that fumigating with glyphosate dose not affect the population's health. [El Tiempo]