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There
was a devastating logic about Eduardo Umana's assassination. He
belonged to an endangered species: those Colombians whose efforts
to promote political tolerance and dialogue threaten the warriors
on all sides. It was no accident that his assassination exposed
the army-paramilitary alliance that kills to prolong and deepen
the war.
After Eduardo’s death, and under pressure from then American
ambassador Myles Frechette, the Colombian Defense Ministry disbanded
the Twentieth Battalion. But the Ministry failed to dismantle the
secret cells of the battalion’s death squad, and so re-cycled
those intelligence agents to serve in other army brigades around
the country.
The arrest warrant for Carlos Castaño for the murder of Eduardo
Umana gathers dust in some army or police barracks.
In December
2000, Mary Robinson, the United Nations High Commissioner
for Human Rights, visited Bogotá, knowing full well that
the country was bleeding to death. Even so, there was much that
shocked her. She could not fathom the indifference of political
leaders who had never found it important to make an "acta de
presencia" at any of the funerals of the massacres of their
own citizens. And she was appalled by the discovery that large numbers
of Colombians sided with the murderer and not the victim.
At her December 4 press conference, she was emphatic: "I have
a very real sense of the desperate need ordinary people have in
this country for greater security…" she said, " [but]
I urge the people of Colombia not to fall into this trap… The
paramilitary groups are not your friends. They do not support the
civilian population. They are in breach of the law. They are undermining
the legitimacy and authority of the government.… It is intolerable
that week in week out the paramilitary phenomenon grows."
Mary Robinson could not be expected to understand the pathology
of Colombian society. Colombians have hitched their dreams of the
future to a myth that says that Castaño can defeat the guerrillas,
and when the war is won, he will put down his guns, and everything
will return to "normality."
Related
Articles:
UN and HRW reports
Vanishing Act? The Sudden Disappearance
of Carlos Castaño
Barrancabermeja: Murder Capital of the World
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