More Indigenous Massacred
On Mar. 24 in Corinto municipality, Cauca department, presumed members of the rightwing paramilitary United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) murdered four residents of the Paez indigenous reservation of Corinto and abducted one other. In a Mar. 27 communique, the Regional Indigenous Council of the Cauca (CRIC) reported the massacre but did not speculate on its authors. Last November rightwing paramilitaries massacred 13 people in Corinto, most of them local Paez residents [see Update 617]. The governor of the Corinto reservation was murdered last June [see Update #596]. [El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 3/28/02 from AFP; Vientos del Sur (VISUR) 3/28/02 from Caracol Noticias TV & El Pais 3/27/02]
Former Governor Murdered
On Mar. 25, five armed assailants abducted indigenous leader Baudelino Romero from his home in the Palmalta indigenous reservation, in rural Natagaima municipality in the central Colombian department of Tolima. His body was found on Mar. 26 in a rural area of the nearby village of La Molana. Romero was a former governor of Palmalta. Indigenous spokesperson Alfredo Vargas told journalists that the attackers "were men wearing civilian clothing, who because of the violence we face around here, we are not in any condition to identify." [El Pais (Cali) 3/26/02]
AUC Murder At Least 5 People
On Mar. 27, some 20 men in military uniforms wearing AUC insignia massacred at least five people in the municipality of Puerto Concordia, in Meta department. The paramilitaries first killed two boat pilots, then crossed the Guaviare river and executed three other people, tossing their bodies into the river. Only one body, that of a woman, has been recovered. [Caracol 3/27/02; EFE 3/28/02] Also on Mar. 27, eight members of a single family were murdered at their home by an unidentified armed group in the village of Caunapi, Tumaco municipality, Narino department. [ED- LP 3/28/02 from AFP]
From the
Weekly News Update on the Americas (ISSN 1084-922X), published by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York, 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012, 212-674-9499,
wnu@igc.org.
Paramilitaries Use Aircraft
Human Rights Watch Reports on Colombia
