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Weekly News Update on Colombia #497, August 8,
1999
US army colonel's wife caught drug trafficking
The Village Voice revealed in an Aug. 5 article posted on its web
site that the wife of a US military officer in charge of anti- drug efforts
in Colombia has been arrested for drug trafficking. An arrest warrant was
issued in late June for Laurie Anne Hiett, and on Aug. 5 she surrendered
to federal authorities in Brooklyn, New York, was arraigned on a charge
of conspiracy to distribute narcotics and was released on $150,000 bail.
A three-month undercover operation by the New York police, US Customs
agents and the Army's Criminal Investigation Division found no evidence
of involvement by Col. James C. Hiett, Laurie Hiett's husband. Since July
1998, Col. Hiett has served as the US military group commander, responsible
for the 200-member military group stationed at the US Embassy in Bogota
and in charge of all US military activities in Colombia--including counterdrug
operations, US Marines protecting the Embassy and US Special Forces rotating
through Colombia for training. Col. Ron Williams, a Southern Command spokesperson,
said Col. Hiett requested to be removed from the post after the allegations
arose against his wife; his transfer is pending.
The alleged smuggling scheme involved the mailing of six packages, each
containing about 1.2 kilograms of cocaine, between Apr. 13 and May 26.
Each package contained a box wrapped in brown paper and filled with cocaine,
with no apparent effort to conceal it within some other substance or packaging.
The packages were mailed from the APO, or Air Force Postal Service, which
allows US diplomats and their families to send and receive mail from abroad.
Highly restricted, APO is not available to Colombian employees at the embassy
or to other US nationals living in Colombia.
Court documents said Laurie Hiett told military investigators that she
mailed the packages at the request of her husband's embassy driver and
did not know they contained cocaine. The US government has also charged
the driver, Jorge Alfonso Ayala, a Colombian national and 15-year embassy
employee, with being part of the alleged smuggling scheme. Ayala told military
investigators at the embassy in June that Laurie Hiett "abused cocaine"
and that he had helped her buy it in the Zona Rosa, a fashionable district
of boutiques, discos and restaurants in northern Bogota; and from "an unknown
woman in a taxi" at the embassy's back gate.
When asked about these allegations, Hiett "emotionally denied the charges,"
according to a court affidavit. However, investigators said there was ample
evidence that Hiett was aware of what was in the packages. They said US
Customs travel records showed that she even made several trips to the US
in April and May, allegedly to prepare for and help coordinate the conspiracy.
At one point, Hiett reportedly spent several days in Manhattan's Marriott
Hotel with a witness in the case whose identity has been kept secret.
According to the affidavit, Hiett signed US Customs declarations for
all six packages, claiming that they contained such items as a t-shirt,
picture, candy, coffee, books, Colombian artifacts, a birthday present
and a candle. Court documents allege that Hiett grew agitated when confronted
with the customs declarations she had signed; during one session, she ran
into her husband's office in the embassy after accusing Army investigators
"of making up a story to get her into trouble," according to the affidavit.
Hiett was reportedly fond of Zona Rosa, and was often there in the company
of Ayala, her husband's driver. The Zona Rosa is apparently known for drug
trafficking, and US employees have been advised to use caution when visiting
the district ever since US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent
Frank Moreno was shot there in an altercation outside a bar on Nov. 22
of last year [see Update #460]. [Village Voice (website) 8/5/99; Agence
France Presse 8/6/99; Washington Post 8/7/99; New York Times 8/7/99; Miami
Herald (website) 8/6/99 from AP; MH 8/7/99]
The scandal comes amid increased efforts by the US and Colombian military
to obtain more resources for the counterinsurgency war in Colombia, under
the pretext of a war against drug trafficking [see Update #494]. In an
email message on Oct. 27, 1998, Col. Hiett had criticized Dennis Grammenos
of the Champaign-Urbana chapter of the Colombia Support Network (CSN-CU)
for comments made on email about US involvement in counterinsurgency efforts
in Colombia. In his brief message, Col. Hiett made no mention of drugs
as a reason for US involvement in Colombia. "[W]hile your motives are well
intentioned," he wrote, "can you even start to imagine what happens if
Colombia falls to the guerillas. ...[W]e get more oil from Venezuela (Colombia
border country) than we do from the mid-east now. Better think about the
US economic interests in the future before you propose we let the guerillas
take over!" [Message from Col. Hiett 10/27/98, reposted by CSN-CU on 8/6/99]
Campesinos strike in Colombia
A rural strike by campesinos had spread to a number of Colombian departments
by July 29, as thousands of campesinos blocked six main highways to protest
agricultural imports and demand that the government address agrarian concerns.
In Villavicencio, capital of Meta department, campesinos clashed with police
after trying to block the main highway heading to the eastern plains region.
There were also clashes between police and campesinos in Neiva, capital
of Huila department. Ten of Colombia's 32 departments were affected by
roadblocks during the strike, which was expected to end on July 29. [Agencia
Informativa Pulsar 7/29/99] Some government sources charged that the strike
was a tactic by leftist rebels to increase their power at the negotiations
table. [El Espectador (Bogota) 8/1/99]
The campesinos are demanding sufficient credit at low interest rates,
debt forgiveness, more investment in the rural sector and protection for
national products. Agriculture Minister Carlos Murgas said the strikers
don't represent the agricultural sector, and that in any case it would
be impossible to change international accords on imports. The Colombian
church supported the strike, agreeing that it was provoked by the indiscriminate
import of foodstuffs. According to strike leader Angel Maria Caballero,
more than a million agricultural jobs have been lost in the past decade
because of subsidized imports. Caballero criticized the importing of such
products as rice, tomato and brown cane sugar (panela) from Ecuador; milk,
chicken, corn and mangos from Venezuela; and mandarin oranges from Uruguay.
[Pulsar 7/29/99]
Colombian refugees occupy un offices
At least 120 people displaced by violence, including nearly 40 children
and a number of elderly people, began an occupation of the Bogota offices
of the United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Refugees on Aug. 3 to
demand that the Colombian government provide them with protection and social
programs. The protesters say they will not leave the UN offices until they
reach an accord with President Andres Pastrana or Interior Minister Nestor
Humberto Martinez. Officials at the UN office have left the building for
"security" reasons, but they have promised to "mediate" with the government
to get the protesters' demands heard, said Jose Vega, one of the spokespeople
of the protest.
The protesters have been living in precarious conditions in the slums
of Bogota since they fled violence in different areas of the country, including
the departments of Caqueta, Putumayo, and Norte de Santander, and the regions
of Magdalena Medio and Uraba. They are demanding health services, housing,
education, jobs and humanitarian assistance. "We're not asking for handouts,
just that they comply with the law concerning those displaced by a conflict
that we didn't promote and of which we are only victims," insisted Vega.
Vega pointed out that a law on confiscation of drug traffickers' assets
is supposed to allocate some of those assets for the construction of housing
for Colombia's internally displaced people, of whom there are an estimated
1.5 million. [El Colombiano (Medellin) 8/4/99 from EFE; CNN en Espanol
8/6/99]
Paramilitary violence continues in Colombia
Eight men were shot to death by rightwing paramilitaries from the United
Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) on the night of Aug. 6 in a working
class neighborhood in the western section of Cucuta, in Norte de Santander
department in eastern Colombia near the Venezuelan border. The victims
were selected by name from a list. At least 100 people have been murdered
by the AUC in massacres since last May in oil-rich Norte de Santander,
where the paramilitaries are seeking to force out leftist rebels. [El Colombiano
8/8/99] On June 30, a group of paramilitaries attacked two homes in the
Juan Atalaya neighborhood of Cucuta, where they killed five people, three
of them refugees who had fled paramilitary violence in other municipalities.
[Equipo Nizkor/Derechos Human Rights/Serpaj Europa Solidaridad Urgente
7/7/99]
At least 16 businesspeople were dragged from their homes and from a
bar and shot to death on July 18 by some 50 AUC members in Tibu municipality,
Norte de Santander. The paramilitaries dumped some of the bodies against
a wall underneath graffiti that read "Long Live the EPL." With about 500
fighters, the Maoist EPL (Popular Liberation Army) is the smallest of Colombia's
three main leftist rebel groups. [Reuters 7/19/99]
In two separate attacks on July 15, paramilitaries decapitated five
people in the town of Villanueva, Casanare department; and killed eight
campesinos and burned 15 homes in the village of Saiza, in northern Cordoba
department. International human rights groups and the US State Department
have accused the Colombian military of backing the illegal paramilitary
gangs, now estimated to have 5,000 fighters nationwide, in their "dirty
war" against the rebels and their civilian support base. [Reuters 7/15/99]
A police inspector and his son were executed on July 6 before a stunned
crowd after a mock trial by presumed paramilitaries in the municipality
of San Pablo, Bolivar department, authorities reported. Edilberto Cardenas
Agame and his son, Otoniel Cardenas, were taken from their homes by men
in uniform and marched to the town square, where they were accused of collaborating
with leftist rebels. [Miami Herald 7/7/99]
Meanwhile, authorities are blaming the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia (FARC) for the murder of Bernardo de Jesus Higuita, mayor of Canasgordas
municipality in Antioquia department. De Jesus was abducted on July 5;
his body was found dumped on a highway on July 7, police said. [Reuters
7/8/99; ENH 7/8/99 from Reuters]
Weekly News Update on the Americas * Nicaragua Solidarity Network
of NY 339 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012 * 212-674-9499 fax: 212-674-9139
http://home.earthlink.net/~dbwilson/wnuhome.html * wnu@igc.apc.org
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