Rokko Fermo (PBI) interviews Iván Cepeda on the human rights situation in Colombia.

What is happening with the referendum?

On the evening of 1 September 2009, after having been passed in the Senate, the House of Representatives approved the law to convene a referendum on presidential re-election. This referendum was immediately signed by President Uribe and now must be studied by the Constitutional Court, before it may be legally approved. In terms of the «normal» functioning of institutions, there is not enough time for the Constitutional Court to complete its study before the next presidential elections. «The judges will have to work two shifts —their associate judges and lawyers, three shifts—; the proceedings will have to be practically reduced in half and the discussions will have to end after half a cup of coffee»1. The National Electoral Commission, the Inspector General’s Office2 and the Public Prosecutor’s Office3 are investigating possible irregularities in the process undertaken by the Referendum Promotion Committee. Although the president himself has not made any explicit pronouncements on whether he will run for a second re-election4, members of his Cabinet, such as Minister of the Interior and Justice Fabio Valencia Cossio, have publicly defended the possibility arguing that once the referendum is passed it would become the law and the President would be able to seek his second reelection.. This concept is part of the political theory put forth by Uribe’s supporters, where the rule of opinion is valued above the rule of law as an evolution of the latter6.

Who will be the new Prosecutor General?

A second re-election could consolidate the executive branch’s already effective domination of Colombian State institutions, as demonstrated in a study by the organisation Dejusticia7. The dispute between the Supreme Court of Justice and President Uribe over the three candidates nominated for the election of the new Prosecutor General could also be read in the same terms. «The Court is absolutely clear in that the three candidates are unviable»8, stated the president of the Supreme Court, Augusto Ibáñez, with the reason being that the candidates were not experts in the area of criminal justice9. Since the Court first rejected the list of three candidates, there have been several failed attempts at conciliation. Up to now, two of the initial candidates withdrew without the Court changing its opinion. As a result, President Uribe has verbally assaulted the judges: «I continue on. The Court is politicised. It is left-wing and not a body guaranteeing [fundamental rights] rather it is a political body»10. This issue has no solution on the horizon. The news programme Noticias Uno demonstrated the «many similarities»11 by comparing a speech by President Uribe at the Community Council in Ibagué on 31 October 2009, with a speech given in 1992 by then president of Peru, Alberto Fujimori, who justified the so called «self-coup»12 when he removed the functions of the judicial branch.

Illegal intelligence?

The last PBI Colombia quarterly newsletter (October 2009) mentioned the scandal concerning State intelligence agencies, specifically the Department of Administrative Security (DAS). «Although several directors and high-level officials at the agency […] have been detained or prosecuted by the Public Prosecutor’s Office for espionage operations as well as open complicity with paramilitary groups. These illegal espionage operations have continued, demonstrating […] an organised plan from the highest spheres of the government to consolidate power through intimidation, harassment, and weakening opposition leaders»13.

For instance, there has been extensive surveillance and intimidation carried out against the José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers’ Collective (CCAJAR)14, the journalist Claudia Julieta Duque15, and Supreme Court magistrates16, and the possible intellectual responsibility of then-deputy director of the DAS, José Miguel de Narváez, in the murder of the humorist and journalist Jaime Garzón ten years ago17. The president publicly denied any responsibility in the scandal, instead blaming others, as occurred during the Anti-Corruption Community Council in Bogotá on 17 October 2009: «A person in jail paid […] to encourage these interceptions […] in order to harm the government»18. Despite the president’s statements, the scope of the scandal involving the DAS —an institution directly depending on the president’s office— crosses national borders.

Espionage and military bases

Over the last two weeks of October, a new conflict unleashed between Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and his Colombian counterpart. Once again Venezuelan troops have been sent to the border of the two countries, just as after the attack against the FARC camp in Ecuadorian territory, which killed Raúl Reyes, a member of the insurgent group’s secretariat. After the military agreement was signed between the governments of Colombia and United States, the massacre of eight Colombian citizens in the Venezuelan province of Táchira (bordering Colombia), the responsibility for which has yet to be confirmed19 , and the arrest of two DAS agents in Venezuelan territory, Chávez told members of the armed forces «to prepare for war as the best way to avoid it»20. The history of «cold war» espionage carried out between the two governments goes back to at least 2002, when a coup d’etat was attempted against Hugo Chávez in Venezuela21.

Today, the military agreement between Colombia and United States is another reason for the increasingly aggressive bilateral relations. This agreement would allow US troops to use several military bases in Colombian territory. According to one analysis, the agreement is «so elastic, anything fits»22. And the projection of the US Air Force (USAF) incorporates «full spectrum operations in a critical subregion […] under constant threat from […] Anti-US governments»23. The unilateral manner of the Colombian government’s actions and the lack of written guarantees do not only generate concern in Venezuela. In this respect, the presidents of Argentina and Brazil, Cristina Fernández and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, expressed in a joint statement «their concern for the regional presence of military bases belonging to extra-regional powers, incompatible with the principles of respect for sovereignty and the territorial integrity of the States in the region»24.

The Colombian government gains from Chávez’s warlike rhetoric, since «a long list of acts [scandals] are disappearing from the news»25 as occurs with the old principle of looking for an external enemy when confronted with domestic problems. In this respect, perhaps «the most important vote for the Colombian president will come from his counterpart in Venezuela»26 and, despite the legal problems facing the re-election referendum, Uribe could be newly elected as the president of Colombia.

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1 «El tiempo no da: Uribe no podrá lanzarse a la reelección», Carlos Cortés Castillo, La Silla Vacía, 4 September 2009
2 «Procuraduría investigará posible entrega de prebendas a cambio del referendo», El Espectador, 24 September 2009
3 «Fiscal agilizará proceso contra promotores del referendo», Caracol Radio, 26 August 2009
4 «La reelección “depende de Dios”: Uribe», El Espectador, 19 October 2009
5 «Si se aprueba el referendo se convertirá en “norma superior de orden público”: Mininterior», Caracol Radio, 25 October 2009
6 «Estado de opinión y bases», Caja de Herramientas, Year 18, n° 134, October 2009
7 «Mayorías sin democracia. Desequilibrio de poderes y Estado de derecho en Colombia 2002-2009», García Villegas, Mauricio and Revelo Pebolledo, Javier Eduardo, Dejusticia, Bogotá, 2009
8 «A pesar del nuevo ternado, la Corte no está convencida», Semana Magazine, 21 October2009
9 «La “terna inviable”», Cambio Magazine, 23 September 2009
10 «El líder contra la justicia», El Espectador, 11 October 2009
11 «Las coincidencias de Uribe con Fujimori», Noticias Uno, 1 November 2009
12 «Autogolpe de Fujimori», Terrorfileonline.org, 5 April 1992
13 «Colombia: Coyuntura julio-septiembre», América Latina en Movimiento, 19 October 2009
14 On 5 November 2009, this case was denounced at a public hearing before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (Case 12.380). www.cidh.org/audiencias/137/29.mp3.
15 «Un grave incidente de seguridad afecta a Claudia Julieta Duque», Equipo Nizkor, 22 October  2009
16 «¿Complot o cortina de humo?», Semana Magazine, 26 September 2009
17 «Jaime Garzón 10 años de impunidad.» Contravía, 17 September 2009
18 «Presidente Uribe pide que se investigue a fondo tema de las chuzadas», Radio Santa Fe, 17 October 2009
19 «Cuerpos de ocho colombianos asesinados en Venezuela ya fueron repatriados», El Tiempo, 27 October 2009
20 «Chávez pidió al pueblo venezolano prepararse para la guerra», El Espectador, 8 November 2009
21 «El espionaje colombiano contra Venezuela: el magnicidio y otros tenebrosos fines», América Latina en Movimiento, 30 October 2009. See also: «El informe Arzayús», El Espectador, 7 November 2009
22 «Así quedó el acuerdo de las bases», La Silla Vacía, 4 November 2009
23 «FY 2010», Military Construction Project Data, May 2009
24 «Presidentes de Argentina y Brasil ratificaron su preocupación por acuerdo Colombia-E.U.», El Tiempo, 18 November 2009
25 «Uribe-Chávez o la vanidad», El Espectador, 9 November 2009
26 Ibid.