Country Reports on Terrorism 2008 - Colombia

The Government of Colombia continued vigorous law enforcement, intelligence, military, and economic measures against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN), along with operations against remaining elements of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC). Colombia increased its counterterrorism cooperation and training efforts in the region. The threat of extradition to the United States remained a strong weapon against drug traffickers and terrorists. In 2008, Colombia extradited a record 208 defendants to the United States for prosecution; most were Colombian nationals.

The administration of President Álvaro Uribe maintained its focus on defeating and demobilizing Colombia's terrorist groups through its "Democratic Security" policy, which combines military, intelligence, police operations, efforts to demobilize combatants, and the provision of public services in rural areas previously dominated by illegal armed groups.

On July 2, a Colombian military operation rescued three U.S. Department of Defense contractors, former Colombian presidential candidate and Senator Ingrid Betancourt, and eleven Colombians held by the FARC. The three Americans, kidnapped in February 2003, were the longest-held U.S. hostages in the world at the time of their rescue.

After years of seeming invincibility, the FARC's Secretariat suffered several key losses in 2008. On March 1, a Colombian military strike killed Secretariat member Raúl Reyes at his camp just across the Ecuadorian border, followed less than a week later by the killing of Secretariat member Iván Ríos at the hands of one of his own security guards. Secretariat member and FARC founder Manuel Marulanda ("Tirofijo") died in late March, reportedly of natural causes.

In addition to the high-profile hostage rescue and the severe blows to the FARC Secretariat, Colombian security forces captured or killed a number of mid-level FARC leaders, debriefed terrorist group deserters for detailed information on their respective units, and reduced the amount of territory where terrorists could freely operate. The Colombian military crippled the FARC's communications network, destroyed major caches of weapon and supplies, and reduced the group's financial resources through counternarcotics and other security operations.

Additionally, a record number of FARC members deserted in 2008, yet another sign of the organization's deteriorating power. Desertions increased among mid-level and in some cases senior FARC leaders, such as FARC commander Nelly Ávila Moreno ("Karina"), who deserted in May. FARC desertions in 2008 numbered at least 3,027, surpassing the previous year's record number of 2,480.

Despite the ongoing campaign against the FARC, the group continued tactical-level terrorism, kidnapping for profit and maintained 28 "political" hostages including former Meta Governor Alan Jara and Valle del Cauca Assemblyman Sigifredo López. The FARC also continued narcotrafficking activities, launched several bombings against military and civilian targets in urban areas, and targeted numerous rural outposts, infrastructure targets, and political adversaries in dozens of attacks. Examples of 2008 terrorist activity attributed to the FARC included the following:

• In March, the FARC attacked electrical towers in Nariño and Cauca, cutting off power to numerous municipalities;

• In August, a bomb in Ituango, Antioquia killed seven and wounded 50;

• In August, a car bomb in front of the Justice Palace in Cali killed four and wounded 26;

• In August, two Bogota supermarkets were targeted with small incendiary devices;

• In November, guerrillas from the FARC's 49th Front in Neiva killed Caquetá council member Edinson Javier Pérez;

• In November, FARC members killed teacher Dora Liliana Saavedra and her husband Ferney Ledesma, in front of schoolchildren, for entertaining Colombian Army members at their home;

• In December, the FARC attacked a humanitarian caravan led by the Colombian Family Welfare Institute in Caquetá department with a roadside bomb, killing two health workers.

Peace talks between the government of Colombia and the ELN remained stalled throughout the year due to ELN intransigence. International and local efforts to coax the ELN back to the negotiating table – including efforts by former ELN leader Antonio Bermúdez ("Francisco Galán"), who announced his resignation from the group to focus on peace talks in 2008 – made little progress. The ELN remained in the field, but with diminished resources, a dwindling membership of approximately 2,000 fighters, and reduced offensive capability. Still, the ELN inflicted casualties on the Colombian military through increased use of land mines. It continued to fund its operations through narcotics trafficking. The ELN and FARC clashed over territory in northeastern and southern Colombia, and the ELN continued kidnapping and extortion. Numerous ELN fronts increased their drug trafficking activities in an effort to stem losses suffered by the government of Colombia and the FARC.

The Colombian government continued to process and investigate demobilized paramilitaries under the Justice and Peace Law (JPL), which offers judicial benefits and reduced prison sentences for qualifying demobilizing terrorists. The law requires all participants to confess fully to their crimes as members of a terrorist group and to return all illicit profits. More than 32,000 rank-and-file ex-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 160,000 victims have registered under the JPL, although Colombian government efforts to create measures to provide reparations stalled. Some former paramilitaries continued to engage in criminal activities after demobilization, mostly in drug trafficking, but the AUC as a formal organization remained inactive.

In May, the Colombian government extradited 14 former top AUC leaders to the United States for prosecution for narcotrafficking offenses, and for failure to comply with their JPL obligations. Several have continued to testify about their crimes from the United States in hopes of reduced penalties in Colombia when they complete their U.S. sentences and the USG returns them to Colombia. Still, the Uribe administration suspended extraditions of several alleged AUC members who were cooperating with the paramilitary peace process under the JPL. The United States continued to seek their extraditions.

The Colombian government continued to seek the extradition of three Irish Republican Army (IRA) members. The Colombian courts first acquitted the three of charges that they trained the FARC on bomb tactics and then, following an appeal by the prosecution, sentenced them to 17 years in prison. 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.

Colombia kept up its close cooperation with the United States to block terrorists' assets. Financial institutions closed drug trafficking and terrorism-related accounts on Colombian government orders or in response to designation by the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). Aerial and manual eradication of illicit drugs in Colombia, key to targeting terrorist group finances, covered about 225,000 hectares of illegal drug crops, thus depriving terrorist groups of potentially huge profits. OFAC carried out several designation actions against the financial assets and networks of narcotics traffickers and narcoterrorists (like the FARC) pursuant to Executive Order 12978 and the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act. The OFAC sanctions investigations specifically targeted networks of money exchange businesses in Colombia that laundered narcotics proceeds for the FARC. The United States government continued to support the Government of Colombia in its efforts to decrease the number of kidnappings in that country and to support computer investigations and forensics units. These units were responsible for analysis of computer equipment seized during many security operations.

Colombia continued to expand its role as a regional leader in counterterrorism and provided training to several other countries, including combating terrorist financing. 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 narcoterrorist organizations operating in both countries, and President Uribe and Mexican President Felipe Calderón met November 10, announcing they would enhance their joint counternarcotics and counterterrorism cooperation.

In March, Ecuador suspended diplomatic relations and counterterrorism cooperation with Colombia to protest the Raúl Reyes camp attack, and the bilateral relationship remained frozen at year's end. Venezuela followed suit, but restored diplomatic relations with Colombia at the Rio Group Summit in the Dominican Republic later in March. President Uribe has called on both governments to engage against the FARC and for Nicaragua to turn over FARC members given asylum there after the attack that killed Reyes.