Colombia: Training, organization and activities of the GAULA anti-kidnapping squads; reports of abuses committed by GAULA and impact that the squad has had on kidnapping (1998-2001)
| Publisher | Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada |
| Author | Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board, Canada |
| Publication Date | 8 August 2001 |
| Citation / Document Symbol | COL37527.E |
| Reference | 5 |
| Cite as | Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Colombia: Training, organization and activities of the GAULA anti-kidnapping squads; reports of abuses committed by GAULA and impact that the squad has had on kidnapping (1998-2001), 8 August 2001, COL37527.E, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/3df4be221c.html [accessed 17 September 2023] |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
The Grupos de Acción Unificada por la Libertad Personal (United Action for Personal Freedom Groups, Gaula) groups or task forces were created through Law No. 282 of 6 June 1996, taking over the functions of the Unidades Antisecuestro (Anti-kidnapping Units, UNASE) (Law 282, Arts. 1-4).
The law states that each Gaula group is to be formed by persons, assets and resources assigned by the Director of the Presidential Program for the Defence of Personal Freedom, and these may be drawn from the Office of the Attorney General, the National Army, the National Police, the National Navy, the Air Force, and the National Security Administration Department (Law 282, Art. 4).
During a January 2000 interview Guillermo Restrepo, the Director of the Presidential Program for the Defence of Personal Freedom, stated that this law enabled joint action by a single group drawing from the police and armed forces (ANCOL 30 Jan. 2000). However, Restrepo indicated that there have been at times "institutional jealousy" or rivalries (celos institucionales) between Gaulas and various institutions, and rivalries within the Gaulas themselves; he also stated that military institutions have to acknowledge adequately the role played by other institutions (ibid.).
Article 5 of Law 282 defines the organization of Gaula groups as follows (the terms used below are an unofficial translation, provided only as reference):
a) A Unified Directorate (Dirección Unificada) led by the corresponding Public Attorney (Fiscal respectivo) and the corresponding Police or Military Commander in their respective areas of competence.
b) An intelligence and analysis unit, formed by intelligence analysts and communications and database experts, responsible for gathering and processing information and providing the Unified Directorate with possible courses of action.
c) An Operational Unit formed by members of the Armed Forces, the National Police or the Security Administration Department (DAS). Each unit acts under the command of an officer and is responsible for the planning and execution of the operations needed to rescue and protect victims, and capture criminals.
d) An Investigative Unit formed by agents, detectives and technicians carrying out Judicial Police functions. Each unit is led by a public attorney and is responsible for criminal investigations.
The Article adds that an inter-institutional task force with members of financial comptroller agencies and the Customs and Revenue Directorate will assist the Gaulas in detecting assets derived from kidnapping and extortion.
Additional provisions that add to the definition of the organization and operation of Gaulas can be found throughout the first chapter of Law 282.
Decree No. 864 of 11 May 1998 created the Dirección Antisecuestro y Extorsión (Anti-kidnapping and Extortion Directorate) of the National Police, making this body responsible for coordinating the operational direction (dirección operativa), assigning the personnel, departmental and metropolitan police commands, and overseeing the police personnel required by the various police units belonging to the Regional Gaulas (Art. 2.3).
The Decree assigns this Directorate a number of other responsibilities, including: the development and coordination, with the National Police Intelligence Directorate, of information related to kidnapping and extortion (Art. 2.6); the coordination and implementation, with the Director of the Program for Personal Freedom, of the organization, training and budget allocation of the Gaulas (not referring exclusively to police Gaulas only) (Art. 2.7); coordinating with the Attorney General to ensure that the various units of the Gaulas (described above) can carry out their missions (Art. 2.8).
The Decree also establishes the following structure for the Directorate, assigning to each specific responsibilities (Art. 1):
1) Judicial Police and Technical Operations
2) Intelligence
3) Support and Services
4) Regional Groups
A United Nations report indicates that the Office of the Attorney General (Fiscalía General) leads Gaula groups on matters related to criminal investigations (13 Jan. 2000). For this work, including prosecution, the Office draws on members of the Seccional de Policía Judicial (Judicial Police Section, SIJIN), the Dirección Nacional de Policía Judicial e Investigación (National Directorate of Judicial Police and Investigation, DIJIN), and the DAS (ibid.).
Several sources refer to Gaulas Rurales and Gaulas Urbanas, whose areas of operation are outside or within large cities, respectively. The Armed Forces of Colombia report that the National Directorate of Military Gaulas is located in Bogota, and provides a listing of Gaulas for the various departments of the country (Fuerzas Militares n.d.). The same source indicates that the legislation that governs the response or actions of Gaulas are Law 282, Decree 1512, Resolution 001 of 1997, Directive (Directiva) 00039 of 2000 and Complementary Directive 0002 of 2000, Oficio Circular No. 089426, and Circular 090379 (ibid.). Except for Law 282, a copy of these documents could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate.
In 1999 a total of 2,978 persons were reported kidnapped in Colombia; during the year, 454 persons were rescued, 121 were killed by their captors, 58 were "released under pressure" (liberados por presión), and 48 escaped (ANCOL 30 Jan. 2000).
The jurisdiction of the Antioquia regional Gaula encompasses 118 municipal districts in the departments of Antioquia (108 districts) and Chocó (16), and includes the Gaula Urbano of Medellin (Gaula Antioquia 3 Nov. 2000). In the first 10 months of 2000 Gaula Antioquia, which includes members of the Army, DAS, Attorney General's Office and CTI, captured 125 and killed two persons, rescued 12 abduction victims, and seized a variety of equipment (ibid.).
In the year 2000 members of Gaula groups and other units freed 507 persons, including 48 minors; of these, 285 had been kidnapped by the National Liberation Army (ELN), 82 by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), 44 by the Popular Liberation Army (EPL), and 96 by paramilitaries or common criminals (Country Reports 2000 Feb. 2001, Sec. 1.b).
The Director of Military Gaulas, Coronel Jesús Antonio Bohórquez, stated that kidnappings reported to military Gaulas had decreased 50 percent during the first quarter of 2001 with respect to the same period the previous years (ANCOL 22 Mar. 2001). He reported that Gaulas had received 465 reports of extortive kidnappings (secuestros extorsivos) and carried out 265 successful operations in the first three months of the year, 192 against kidnapping and 73 against extortion, freeing 144 abduction victims and capturing 209 criminals (ibid.).
The Director of Police Gaulas, General Leonardo Gallego, reported in April 2001 that during the first quarter of the year kidnappings in Colombia decreased by 36.5 percent, to 681 reported cases, with respect to 1,073 abductions reported for the same period the previous year (El Tiempo 22 Apr. 2001). The Director attributed this decrease to the joint operations carried out by the Police and Army Gaulas as well as the Attorney General and DAS, and community support (ibid.). The Director also indicated that reported cases of extortion during the first quarter of 2001 had increased by 35 percent with respect to the same period of the previous year, with Bogota, Medellin, Manizales and other cities along the eje cafetero (coffee-producing región); he added that although kidnapping had decreased significantly in Bogota and the departments of Valle and Cundinamarca, it increased in the departments of Cesar, Antioquia, Magdalena, Tolima and Santander (ibid.).
By May 2001 reported kidnappings had decreased only 25 percent while extortion had increased 36 percent with respect to the same period the previous year (El Tiempo 12 May 2001). General Gallego attributed this change to armed groups preferring extortion over kidnapping, because fewer people report the former (ibid.). A total of 916 kidnappings were reported in the first four months of 2001, while 362 abduction victims were released, 157 were rescued, 28 were "freed under pressure from security forces" (liberados por presión de la Fuerza Pública), and seven escaped their captors (ibid.).
Police and Military Gaula units mounted special preventive measures for the Easter holidays (El Tiempo 8 Apr. 2001), and Gaula members were drawn to assist in special security measures for the soccer Copa America (ANCOL 4 June 2001).
Information on abuses attributed specifically to members of Gaula units during the requested period was sparse.
In a report on links between military officers and paramilitary groups, Human Rights Watch (HRW) refers to an alleged "death squad" being formed within the Fourth Batallion in Antioquia in connection with "an army officer attached to the rural Gaula" (Feb. 2000).
Country Reports 2000 states that during 2000 no progress had been made in a case against a police mayor and former Gaula deputy-commander since he was discharged and arrested in 1997, and adds that there were no results from an investigation on cooperation between Gaula and paramilitary groups (Feb. 2001, Sec. 1.b).
In April 2001 the Office of the Attorney General ordered the arrest of two coronels and four former Gaula members for their alleged participation in the illegal eavesdropping of more than 2,000 telephone lines in Medellin (Cronología Andina Apr. 2001). Prosecutors discovered the illegal operation as they investigated the disappearance of two activists of the Asociacion de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos (Association of Relatives of the Detained-Disappeared, ASFADDES) which had been reported in Medellin on 6 October 2000 (ibid.; El Tiempo 19 Apr. 2001). According to one report, the telephone lines intercepted belonged to various non-government organizations, human rights advocates and other individuals with no particular affiliation (ibid.). The report adds that prosecutors ordered a few days earlier the arrest of a SIJIN captain, accused of murdering on 6 April 2001 an official who was also investigating the illegal eavesdropping (ibid.). The accused captain had been a member of the Urban Gaula of the Metropolitan Police of Medellin at the time the illegal eavesdropping was carried out (ibid.).
No details on the training of GAULA units could be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate.
This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum.
References
Agencia de Noticias de Colombia (ANCOL), Bogota. 4 June 2001. "Pastrana llega a Paraguay para ratificar sede Copa América."
_____. 22 March 2001. "Gaulas militares han liberado a 144 secuestrados en el 2001."
_____. 30 January 2000. Martha Lucía Martínez. "La prevención, nuevo instrumento en la lucha contra el secuestro."
Cronología Andina [Lima]. "Colombia-Abril 2001."
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2000. February 2001. "Colombia." Washington, DC: U.S. Department of State.
Diario Oficial [Bogota]. 6 June 1996. "Ley 282 de 1996 (junio 6)."
El Tiempo [Bogota]. 12 May 2001. "Aumentan pie de fuerza en Gaula: Baja índice de secuestro."
_____. 22 April 2001. "Gaula: Disminuyó secuestro en el país."
_____. 19 April 2001. "Fiscalía ordenó capturas: Coroneles espiaban a defensores de derechos."
_____. 8 April 2001. "Telefonos de seguridad."
Fuerzas Militares de Colombia [Bogota]. N.d. "Trámites: Grupo Acción Unificada Libertad Personal."
Gaula Antioquia, Medellin. 3 November 2000. "Corporativa."
Human Rights Watch (HRW), New York. February 2000. Colombia: The Ties That Bind: Colombia and Military-Paramilitary Links.
Ministerio de Defensa Nacional, Bogota. 11 May 1998. "Decreto Numero 864 de 1998 (mayo 11).
United Nations (UN) Economic and Social Council, New York. 13 January 2000. Los derechos civiles y políticos, en particular las cuestiones de la tortura y la detención: Informe del Relator Especial, Sir Nigel Rodley, presentado con arreglo a la resolución 1999/32 de la Comisión de Derechos Humanos--Adición: Seguimiento de las recomendaciones realizadas por el Relator Especial, Visitas a Chile, Colombia, México y Venezuela.