|
But
there is another dimension. In the 'liberated zones' of Córdoba
and Uraba, where the AUC have driven out the guerrillas and re-populated
the zone with their own supporters, Castaño has introduced
the second stage of his political project, a campaign to win over
hearts and minds that is filling the historic vacuum of the state.
FUNDIPAZ is a "foundation" set up by Castaño two
years ago, co-financed --from drug wealth -- by the AUC and the
smaller ACCU, (Self Defense Groups of Córdoba and Uraba,
the origins of the AUC.). Administered by his sister-in-law, Teresa
Gómez, FUNDIPAZ has financed roads, schools and housing,
and offers free medical brigades, subsidized medicine, universal
schooling, housing, and adult education. Many on the receiving end
of such services have become converts. Against a background of pervasive
intimidation and ruthless social and behavioral controls, it is
hard to gauge the depth of this support. Yet for people who have
never known security, protection, or public services, Castaño's
largesse represents a transformation of their world.
THE DIRTY WAR
This spring, after hundreds of murders and a year-long terror campaign
in the streets and barrios the AUC completed their seizure of the
of the strategic oil producing port of Barrancabermeja--the first
major city to fall under Castaño's control.
In May, they brought the rural war to the capital. As is his custom,
Castaño had announced the presence of his forces in Bogotá
long before the bombs started to explode. He told the press in January
that a new AUC front, the Frente Capital, would soon dismantle
the guerrillas' Bogotá supply network and identify and eliminate
"subversives," who are characterized by Castaño
as "military objectives."
So who is a subversive? Writing last January from exile, where he
had been driven some weeks earlier by paramilitary threats, Sergio
Otalora Montenegro, analyst and weekly columnist for the independent
Bogotá newspaper, "El Espectador," described
the political objective served by Castaño and the AUC. "The
sinister origins of the paramilitaries and of their real protectors
are not exclusively rooted in a conflict to the death with the guerrillas,"
he explained. "The truth is, that behind the death squads there
have been 15 years of dirty war [designed] to take apart [desarticular]
every legitimate, organized, popular movement, and thus destroy
any real possibility of constructing a democratic alternative in
open opposition to the traditional parties." What Otalero describes
is the political agenda that, in combination with the land-clearing
rural massacres, Castaño and his paramilitaries so faithfully
execute on his backers' behalf.
This is the lethal political agenda that now menaces the coming
election campaign, and motivates the serial assassinations of Colombia's
intellectuals and peace leaders, labor organizers, honest judicial
workers, human rights defenders and journalists, ethnic and community
activists. In the last four years, over 50 judicial officials and
more than 40 human rights activists have been killed and scores
more forced to flee the country. Most of Colombia's experienced
investigative journalists have died or had to flee because of their
work.
|
|
