Colombia tops murder league

Last year alone, almost 27,000 met savage end

By Linda Diebel
Toronto Star Latin American Bureau

BOGOTA Every 20 minutes someone is murdered in Colombia.

Last year, there were close to 27,000 violent deaths, not counting
traffic accidents, in the most savage country in the world per capita.

Every statistic is more horrific than the last.

Death squads don't discriminate. They kill women and children; they
mutilate bodies and cut off heads. One of the most notorious groups is
called the Head Cutters.

``Will we be eternally killing each other?'' asks Colombian university
rector Alberto Valencia in an interview. ``Is there no hope for our
country?''

He adds: ``Colombia is a country at war with itself. . . . I can
understand why many think it may be too late for us.''

The seemingly neverending cycle of violence stems from a variety of
complex causes, including a civil war between the government and
rebels that has dragged on for 40 years.

But the deadly equation is complicated by other events, among them:

Thousands of soldiers and paramilitary troops are working together
in the north to drive peasants off their land.

Everywhere, poor Colombians are paying the highest price for civil
war. There are 1 million refugees in a country of 35 million. The
number grows daily.

``I was so afraid. . . . They burned our house, they didn't leave
anything standing,'' recounts a 7yearold whose family was attacked
by death squads. ``Now, we have to go far away.''

Refugees are spilling into neighboring Panama and Venezuela,
threatening international incidents. Colombian death squads are
crossing borders to hunt them down.

``Panama does not have the personnel to guard its border,'' a
Panamanian official recently protested.

A rebel army, called the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
(FARC), numbering about 12,000, effectively controls the south. The
rebels recently embarrassed the army by seizing 70 soldiers in a raid
and holding them prisoner for almost a year.

The army seeks to retaliate. Generals scoff at government peace
initiatives. Says Armed Forces General Harold Bedoya: ``Talk less
about making peace with the guerrillas.''

Another rebel group, the 4,000member National Liberation Army, runs
scattered guerrilla raids.

Cocaine gravely complicates the situation. Narcotrafficking appears
to be the country's only viable industry. Coke lords control Cali and
Medillin and FARC rebels grow rich by taxing cocaine production in the
south.

The central government is weak and under attack. The United States has
accused President Ernesto Samper of financing his election campaign
with Cali cartel money and, for the second consecutive year, has
decertified Colombia as a drugfighting ally. It is mainly a public
relations move; the Americans continue to sell military equipment to
Colombia.

The democratic movement, including human rights workers, teachers,
union leaders, church officials and union organizers, is being
systematically wiped out by the death squads.

At 2 a.m. on May 19, for example, five commandos burst into the Bogota
apartment of human rights workers Mario Calderon and Elsa Constanza
Alvarado and shot them dead. Their 18monthold son was found sobbing
over their bloody bodies.

``We don't believe the killers will be ever brought to justice,'' says
colleague Father Camillo Borrero. ``We are all scared.''