GOC EFFORTS TO WIN POPULAR SUPPORT IN CONFLICT

UNCLAS BOGOTA 010526 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PTER PGOV PREL MARR EAID CO SUBJECT: GOC EFFORTS TO WIN POPULAR SUPPORT IN CONFLICT ZONES -------------- Summary -------------- ¶1. The GOC is implementing social action programs to complement military action and to win the support of two million people in conflict zones. Colombian Armed Forces Commander General Padilla strongly supports the program and recently traveled to a remote village to open a rural health clinic. President Uribe is expected to inaugurate a new town being built for survivors of a 2002 FARC massacre. The programs appear popular, but must be integrated with longer-term development economic plans to sustain citizen support for the GOC. End Summary. -------------- Seeking Sustainable State Control -------------- ¶2. In 2003, Uribe announced the GOC had established a police presence in every municipality in the country for the first time. Still, the GOC recognized that a security presence alone is insufficient to achieve effective state control. Hence, the GOC set up the Centro de Coordinacion de Accion Integral (CCAI) to promote short-term social and economic development in nine "priority" zones where Colombian security forces have established security, but state control remains shaky. The priority zones have a population of over two million. CCAI's goal is to build public support for the GOC and to improve its capacity to govern in the priority zones. CCAI has no budget of its own, but coordinates and prioritizes about eighty million dollars of GOC spending on social services, such as health clinics, schools and small-scale infrastructure. CCAI's executive board of civil and military officials, chaired by presidential advisor Luis Alfonso Hoyas, meets regularly and is able to react quickly to events on the ground. A small staff assigned from different agencies implements board decisions and cuts through red tape to quickly deliver emergency relief. The USG plays an integral role in CCAI. SouthCom helped design it, trained its staff, and spends 1-2 million USD a year to support dozens of its projects. -------------- -------------- Opening a Health Clinic with the COLMIL Commander -------------- -------------- ¶3. On October 27, we traveled by GOC military aircraft to the village of La Loma, Bojaya municipality, Choco, for CCAI's inauguration of a SouthCom-funded health clinic. Choco is one of Colombia's poorest departments, and years of conflict between illegal armed groups have further eroded social and economic development. La Loma was a ghost town for over a year; its displaced population returned home only in the past six months as the GOC reestablished its presence. CCAI civil coordinator Juan Carlos Vargas Morales said the new clinic, gleaming amongst dilapidated tin-roofed houses, is about more than providing health services to a traumatized population. Rather, it is proof that the government has returned. Residents were appreciative of the new clinic but unenthusiastic about employment prospects: bananas and pineapples are the town's main products but they usually spoil by the time they reach the nearest markets downriver. ¶4. The presence of General Freddy Padilla de Leon, commander of Colombia's armed forces, together with a dozen reporters, underscored the visit's importance. Padilla said ten percent of his time is devoted to winning "hearts and minds," because he thinks Colombia's conflict will not be resolved until citizens believe in the government. He planned more humanitarian outreach to show the military is "not just about guns and bullets" and to gain the public's confidence. Still, the clinic's inauguration was inauspicious; its first patient was a woman treated for minor cuts when a helicopter's prop wash blew the roofs off nearby buildings and a piece of corrugated tin struck her in the head. -------------- A New City for Victims of a Massacre -------------- ¶5. The GOC is spending millions of dollars carving a new city out of the jungle for survivors of the May 2002 FARC massacre of 119 civilians in a church in the village of Bellavista in Bojaya municipality. CCAI is helping coordinate the construction of a new Bellavista about a mile away from the old one. Hundreds of local laborers have worked for two years building 250 sturdy concrete homes and a scattering of public buildings. CCAI officials said they were not sure what employment opportunities locals would have once the construction was done. ¶6. Bellavista locals greeted General Padilla enthusiastically when we visited and told us they were eager to move into their new homes. The move is currently scheduled for early 2007. The old Bellavista, whose ramshackle buildings are festooned with giant banners with pictures of the massacre victims, will then be converted into a memorial and children's park. President Uribe is expected to inaugurate the memorial and the new Bellavista on the fifth anniversary of the massacre. -------------- Comment -------------- ¶7. CCAI programs appear to be popular and not without reason; providing clinics, for example, is a tangible demonstration of State concern. Still, it remains to be seen if CCAI efforts are sufficiently integrated with the longer-term economic development plans necessary to establish a sustained GOC presence and build citizen loyalty. DRUCKER