Colombia

Background

Colombia has been in a state of almost-constant civil war for more than 60 years. During the conflict between liberals and conservatives known as “La Violencia” (“The Violence”), from 1948-1965, an estimated 20,000 people were killed. This period was replaced by the rise of left-wing guerrillas in 1964, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and the National Liberation Army (ELN).
The origins of these conflicts can be found in the post-independence distribution of land, which left large tracts of the country in the ownership of an agrarian and political elite, ensuring one of the highest rates of inequality in the world: today, the poorest 50 percent of Colombians receive 13.8 percent of national income, while the 10 percent richest receive 46.5 percent. The main issues fuelling the dispute are agrarian reform, control over natural resources, state ownership of utilities, access to political participation and social justice.

Like the counter-insurgency strategies of most Latin American countries during the 1960s and 1970s, Colombian governments have based their approach on the National Security Doctrine advocated by the United States, which encouraged Latin American militaries to address the “enemy within” in order to combat the threat of communism. Their military strategy has sought to defeat the guerrillas by destroying their perceived social base: the civilian population became the primary target. Amnesty International estimates that between 1986 and 1993, 20,000 people were killed for political reasons, the majority of these by the armed forces and their right-wing paramilitary allies.

The 1990s saw the rise of paramilitary groups, created or supported by the State. They united to form the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC) in 1995. In 2003, the AUC began a peace process with the government. Official figures claim that approximately 31,000 paramilitaries have been demobilised. However the Justice and Peace Law, which governs the demobilisation process, has been heavily criticised by international bodies such as the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, as paramilitaries are not required to confess past crimes and are able to keep their economic and political base intact. Some 90 percent have received a de facto amnesty.

New paramilitary groups have appeared, operating under new names (such as the Black Eagles), and using the same military structures and composed of the same personnel as the supposedly demobilised AUC. This has raised serious concerns that the demobilisation process is a new form of paramilitarism that is untainted by the weight of evidence linking the AUC to the Colombian State. During 2008, 63 members of Congress, the majority of them members of the same party as, and allies of, the President, were being investigated for their alleged links with paramilitary groups.

Paramilitaries have also been accused of being paid by multinational corporations operating in the country, the most prominent example being Chiquita Brands which reached a settlement (worth US$25 million) with the US Department of Justice after having been accused of paying the paramilitaries in Colombia’s banana growing regions.

When President Alvaro Uribe Velez took office in 2002, he introduced the Defence and Democratic Security Policy as his strategy for ending the conflict. It entails a military offensive against the FARC, the AUC “peace” process and a series of measures that include the creation of a million-person-strong informant network, groups of armed peasant soldiers and incentives for the desertion of guerrilla combatants.

The Democratic Security model is heavily reliant on support from the US. According to Amnesty International, in 2007, US aid for Colombia amounted to approximately US$727 million, some 82 percent of which was destined for the security forces.

Much of these funds are channelled through Plan Colombia, an ostensibly anti-drug strategy, but in practice is counter-insurgent. After 9/11, and in the name of the war on terror (the FARC, ELN and AUC are classified as terrorist organisations by the US Department of State and the European Union), the US allowed Plan Colombia funds to be used directly to combat illegal groups involved in the drug trade. As all three benefit from the drug trade to differing degrees, this allowed for the first time open and direct US involvement in counter-insurgency strategies, here aimed particularly against the FARC.

Colombia is the third largest recipient of US aid, and houses the second-largest US embassy in the world, in terms of personnel, after Iraq. The US provides finance, military training, and logistical support to the Colombian Armed Forces. In exchange, the US secures favourable conditions for investment in extractive industries, particularly oil, and an ally in a region characterised by a move to left-wing governments that challenge US influence in the region.

Human rights situation

During Uribe’s first four-year term (2002-2006), almost 20,000 people were killed or forcibly disappeared. More than half of these occurred out of combat, committed by the State or paramilitaries in 75 percent of cases and by guerrillas in 25 percent of cases. In the same period almost 7000 people were arbitrarily detained and 823 people were tortured. Of the world’s 26 million internally displaced people, an estimated 4.3 million are in Colombia, making this population the second-most numerous in the world, after Sudan. Colombia also has the greatest number of victims of
landmines in the world.

State security forces or paramilitaries have been responsible for massacres, forced disappearances, extrajudicial executions, arbitrary detentions, threats, economic blockades, rape and torture, among others. Campesino, Afrocolombian, and Indigenous communities, as well as social leaders, human-rights defenders, women, children, trade unionists, journalists and displaced people are disproportionately targeted. The rate of impunity for all crime, including all human-rights violations, is 99 percent.

Guerrilla groups on the other hand commit assassinations, death threats, kidnapping and extortion, recruitment of minors, use of anti-personnel mines and indiscriminate attacks, among others. The FARC are currently holding more than 1500 military personnel and civilians in captivity.

Australia’s relationship with Colombia

Australia has extensive trading relations with Colombia, particularly in mining, energy and educational sectors (with potential for further commercial relations in agriculture and telecommunications). With a “virtual office” in Bogotá, Austrade works in Colombia to promote trade and investment opportunities and to cater for Australian business interests. The two countries also collaborate on issues ranging from agricultural trade reform, transnational crime, disarmament and the environment. Both countries are members of the Cairns group for collaboration in agricultural trade.

Contacts

Diplomatic representation

Australian Embassy, Brazil
Australia’s diplomatic relations with Colombia are handled through the Australian Embassy in Brazil.
A SES Quadra 801
Conjunto K, Lote 7
Brasilia DF 70200-010
Brazil
Tel: +55 61 3226 3111
Fax: +55 61 3226 1112
www.brazil.embassy.gov.au

Australian Consulate in Bogotá, Colombia
For consular matters only.
Carrera 16 Nº 86A-05
Bogotá
Colombia
Tel: + 57 1 236 2828
Fax: + 57 1 610 9707

Embassy of the Republic of Colombia in Australia
Level 2, 161 London Circuit
Canberra ACT 2601
Tel: (02) 6230 4203, 6230 4206
Fax: (02) 6230 4209
Email : embassyofcolombia@bigpond.com

International organisations working in Colombia

UN organisations

- OCHA
Cra 11 N- 82-76 off. 902 Edificio Av 82
Tel: + 57 1 6221100
Fax: +57 1 6364656
Email: ochacolombia@un.org

- OHCHR
Calle 113 No. 7-45, Torre B, Oficina 1101.
Edificio Teleport Business Park
Bogotá, Colombia
Tel. +57 1 658 3300
Email: oacnudh@hchr.org.co

- UNDP
Avenida 82 No. 10 – 62, piso 3.
Bogotá, Colombia
Tel: +57 1 4889000
www.pnud.org.co

- UNICEF
Calle 72 No. 10-71 Piso 11
Bogotá
Colombia

Postal address
Apartado Aéreo 91649
Bogotá
Colombia
Tel: + 57 1 312 0090
Fax: + 57 1 321 0620, +57 1 3210649
Email: webcolombia@unicef.org
Website: www.unicef.org.co

- UNHCR
www.unhcr.org/country/col.html