Country Reports on Terrorism 2007 - Colombia

The Government of Colombia, facing domestic terrorist threats, continued vigorous law enforcement, intelligence, military, and economic measures against three designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations within Colombia: the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the National Liberation Army (ELN), and remaining elements of the former United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC). Colombia increased its counterterrorism efforts in the region to counter terrorist groups' operations, investigate terrorist activities inside and outside Colombia, seize assets, and bring terrorists to justice.

Colombia continued to expand its role as regional leader in counterterrorism, and provided some training to numerous countries. Leveraging experience gained from U.S. training, Colombia reached out to countries across the region to create AMERIPOL (a regional police cooperation institution similar to INTERPOL), which will allow more efficient coordination on counterterrorism and law enforcement issues in the region. The Colombian government continued to seek enhanced regional counterterrorism cooperation to target terrorist safe havens in vulnerable border areas, and provided counterterrorism training to officials from partner countries across the region. Colombia and Mexico significantly increased joint training and operations against narco-terrorist organizations operating in both countries.

The United States-Colombia extradition relationship remained the most successful such effort in the world. The Colombian government cooperated fully with U.S. efforts to recover U.S. citizen kidnapping victims, including three kidnapped by the FARC in February 2003 – Thomas Howes, Keith Stansell, and Marc Gonsalves – and remained open to third-party proposals for a hostage-prisoner exchange.

In November, President Alvaro Uribe agreed to a request of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Colombian Senator Piedad Cordoba, to act as intermediaries for a possible "humanitarian exchange" of FARC-held hostages for FARC prisoners in Colombian jails. The Colombian government-sanctioned effort ended in November after Chavez and Cordoba repeatedly failed to adhere to Colombia's guidelines. Nevertheless, Chavez continued his efforts to gain the release of hostages including a failed effort at year's end involving the promised release of three Colombian hostages (Clara Rojas, her son Emmanuel, and Consuelo Gonzales de Perdomo) to an international delegation that included former-Argentine President Nestor Kirchner. The Government of Colombia revealed that the FARC had turned over Emmanuel to a sympathizer, who had in turn placed the child in Colombian social services. Confusion over Emmanuel's whereabouts coupled with FARC allegations that the Colombian military was operating in the area led the FARC to temporarily call off the release. The FARC, under intense public pressure, eventually turned over Rojas and Gonzales to President Chavez.

In December, the Colombian government intercepted three FARC operatives with video tapes showing twelve hostages, including Howes, Stansell, and Gonsalves, and former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, who holds dual Colombian-French citizenship. French President Nicolas Sarkozy remained active in renewed efforts for the hostages' release, calling on leaders across the region to take up the cause.

In December, President Uribe announced a proposal to establish an "encounter zone" to negotiate an exchange that would be mediated by the Catholic Church. Though previous mediation attempts by the Church were unsuccessful, and the Colombian government had attempted a similar proposal in 2005, international pressure to free the hostages further increased. At year's end, the FARC has not responded President Uribe's offer.

The Uribe Administration maintained its focus on defeating and demobilizing Colombia's terrorist groups through its "democratic security" policy, which combined military, intelligence, police operations, efforts to demobilize combatants, and the provision of public services in rural areas. Colombian security forces captured or killed a number of mid-level FARC leaders, debriefed terrorist group deserters for detailed information on their terrorist cells, and reduced the amount of territory where terrorists could freely operate. The September 3 and October 25 deaths of commanders Tomas Medina Caracas "El Negro Acacio," and Gustavo Rueda Diaz, "Martin Caballero," respectively, represented serious blows to the FARC. Medina was a key figure in overseeing the FARC's drug trafficking and weapons procurement activities. Rueda led FARC fronts in the Caribbean coast, and was responsible for the 2003 kidnapping of current Foreign Minister Fernando Araujo, who escaped FARC custody during a military assault on his captors and was recovered in January 2007.

Colombia continued its close cooperation with the United States to block terrorists' assets. Financial institutions closed drug trafficking and terrorism-related accounts on Colombian government orders. Aerial and manual eradication of illicit drugs in Colombia, key to targeting terrorist group finances, covered about 220,000 hectares of illegal drug crops, thus depriving terrorist groups of potentially huge profits. At the same time, the Treasury Department through the Office of Foreign Assets Control pursued and blocked the assets of narcotics traffickers and terrorists it had placed on its Specially Designated Nationals List.

Colombia implemented a new law that defined and criminalized direct and indirect financing of terrorism for both national and international terrorist groups, in accordance with recommendations of both the Financial Action Task Force of South America (GAFISUD) and the Egmont Group. The new law authorized Colombia's Financial Intelligence Unit (UIAF) to freeze terrorists' assets immediately after their designation. Banks were held responsible for their client base and must immediately inform UIAF of any accounts held by newly designated terrorists. Banks also had to screen new clients against current lists of designated terrorists before they would be allowed to provide prospective clients with services. (Previously, banks were not legally required to comply with these regulations, although many had done so on a voluntary basis.)

The threat of extradition to the United States remained a strong weapon against drug traffickers and terrorists. Colombia extradited 164 defendants to the United States for prosecution, the vast majority Colombian nationals, surpassing its previous record. At the end of the year, the Uribe administration had extradited 581 individuals to the United States. Ex-FARC senior member Anayibe Rojas Valderrama, "Sonia," was sentenced in July to more than 16 years in prison for drug trafficking. AUC members Davinson Gomez Ocampo and Hector Rodriguez Acevedo were convicted of drug trafficking and providing material support to a terrorist organization, respectively. The Uribe administration suspended six extraditions of alleged-AUC members, who continued cooperating with the paramilitary peace process under the Colombian Justice and Peace Law. The United States continued to seek their extraditions.

Despite the ongoing military campaign against it, the FARC continued tactical-level terrorist, kidnapping for profit and narcotrafficking activities, and launched several bombings against military and civilian targets in urban areas. It also targeted numerous rural outposts, infrastructure targets, and political adversaries in dozens of attacks. Examples of the FARC's 2007 terrorist activity included the following:

• In January, six people, including a child, were killed in a bomb attack in Buenaventura;
• In March, a bomb attack killed six people and injured over ten in Buenaventura;
• In March, a car bomb attack attempted but failed to assassinate Neiva Mayor Cielo Gonzalez.
• In April, a bomb detonated in front of the Cali police headquarters, killed one person, injured more than thirty, and destroyed the building.
• In June, eleven department legislators from Valle del Cauca held hostage since 2003 were murdered while in FARC custody;
• In October, a grenade attack at a campaign headquarters in Puerto Asís killed two people and injured six others.
• In December, the FARC again attempted but failed to assassinate Neiva Mayor Cielo Gonzalez in a rocket attack.

The Colombian government continued to seek the extradition of three Irish Republican Army (IRA) members, who were first acquitted and then sentenced after the prosecution appealed, to 17 years in prison for training the FARC on bomb tactics. The three fled Colombia while on bail and resurfaced in Ireland in August 2005. Colombia's extradition request remained under review before the Irish courts and the three fugitives remained at large.

The Government of Colombia and the ELN continued peace talks, but no agreements were reached. The ELN remained in the field, but with ever-limited resources, a dwindling membership, and reduced offensive capability. The ELN and FARC clashed over territory in northeastern Colombia, which further weakened the ELN.

Demobilized AUC members continued to be processed and investigated under the Justice and Peace Law, which offered judicial benefits and reduced prison sentences for qualifying demobilizing terrorists.¹ The law requires all participants to confess fully their crimes as members of a terrorist group and to return all illicit profits. More than 32,000 rank-in-file AUC members who did not commit serious crimes have demobilized, and many were receiving benefits through the government's reintegration program, including psychosocial attention, education, healthcare, and career development opportunities. Over 80,000 victims have registered under the JPL, and the Colombian government was working on measures to provide reparations. Some AUC renegades continued to engage in criminal activities after demobilization, mostly in drug trafficking, but the AUC as a formal organization remained inactive.

1 Since 2002, more than 31,000 rank-in-file AUC members demobilized under the Justice and Peace Law, which offered judicial benefits and reduced prison sentences for qualifying demobilizing terrorists. As part of the Justice and Peace Law (JPL) process, the Colombian Prosecutor's office is taking what will be hundreds of sworn confessions from ex-AUC members, that have revealed the location of the graves of almost 1,200 paramilitary victims and provided information on 3,600 of the AUC's crimes.