Peace Timeline: 2002

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

June 29, 2003

While in Orito, President Uribe and Minister of Defense Marta Lucia Ramirez unveiled the government's new Security Strategy Document. In his remarks, Uribe addressed the fumigation issue: "as long as I am president we will not be suspending fumigations, I don't like to trick people. I don't like to have one discourse here and another there. We are going to defeat drugs any way we can, they have only brought violence and problems to the Colombian people." [eltiempo.com and AFP]

Link to the security strategy document in English: http://www.mindefensa.gov.co/politica/documentos/seguridad_democratica_eng.pdf

President Uribe also made initial payments to families who have joined the "family forest protector" alternative development program. This Plan Colombia-funded program requires families to gradually replace their coca cultivation with legal crops while protecting forests. Every two months indigenous and peasant families will receive approximately US$300 for committing themselves to reducing coca and preserving and protecting the Amazon basin. [Associated Press]

June 24, 2003

In the municipalities of Orito and San Miguel the military engaged in battle with the FARC; four members of the armed forces have been killed and more than 10 wounded. [ElTiempo.com con EFE]

June 15, 2003

The FARC set off a number of bombs in Puerto Guzmán. The most recent attack occurred when a family of workers opened the door to their home, and triggered the explosion. According to news sources the rural areas of the municipality resemble ghost towns, in the urban areas there are few children playing and soldiers patrolling empty streets. The mayor left town in March and can only visit by helicopter. Peasants in rural Puerto Guzmán have two options, reports El Tiempo: comply with the guerrillas' rules or leave. [Édison Parra Garzón, El Tiempo]

June 9, 2003

· A number of Putumayo-based NGOs are pleased with the Defense Ministry's decision to dismiss from duty Army General Gabriel Ramón Díaz Ortiz, Commander of the Army's 2nd Division in the Department of Atlántico. Prior to this posting, Gen. Díaz Ortiz was Commander of the 24th brigade in Putumayo, where allegations of human right abuses and toleration of paramilitary activity led NGOs to lodge complaints against him.

June 8, 2003

A Los Angeles Times report found that the U.S.-backed program to eliminate coca growth in Putumayo has for the most part succeeded. However, the reporter also noted that U.S. and Colombian efforts to promote alternative development programs have had less success. "About 50,000 people have left Putumayo to grow and pick coca in other areas of Colombia. In Nariño, a neighboring province, coca cultivation has nearly doubled to 37,000 acres."

According to the report, over the past year most alternative development programs have been concentrated around Putumayo, but the fumigations have forced many to plant coca in more remote areas. One of these areas is Guaviare department to the north. This remote zone has a large guerrilla presence and no infrastructure, making it almost impossible to carry out development work. According to a U.S. official, "Right now, the plan in Guaviare is just to spray them. … We don't have any longer-term development plans." [T. Christian Miller, Los Angles Times]

June 6, 2003

Guerrillas of the FARC's 48th front attacked the San Miguel police station from a place known as "the Island" in the San Miguel river that separates Colombia from Ecuador. The attacked lasted four hours and injured seven policemen. [El Diario del Sur]

280 new "peasant soldiers" were deployed to Puerto Guzmán, Puerto Caicedo, Puerto Asís and La Hormiga , several of which have never had a police presence. According to the commander of the 24th brigade, General Jorge Pineda Carvajal, this constitutes the second phase of the government's deployment of peasant soldiers in the region. The soldiers will be housed in refurbished residences, which will act as military barracks. Under the first phase of the program 180 soldiers were deployed in the areas of Villagarzón, La Dorada, La Tagua, Sibundoy and Orito. [El Diario del Sur]

June 3, 2003

Small shop owners in Villagarzón emphatically rejected the accusations of 24th Brigade Commander General Jorge Pineda Carvajal, claiming they support paramilitary groups in the area.

During a security council meeting, Milton Bravo Rojas, the mayor of Villagarzón, alluded to the fact that paramilitary groups have once again made a presence in the town, causing generalized fear and panic among the population, especially within displaced communities who have been coined as guerrilla informants. Mr. Bravo requested the armed forces take immediate action and halt the paramilitary incursion as quickly as possible.

Soon after, Gen. Pineda apologized to the community for his comments and ordered the Domingo Rico battalion put an end to the paramilitary presence in the area. [El Diario del Sur]