GOC LAUNCHES PROGRAM OF COMMUNITY RAPPROCHEMENT IN

C O N F I D E N T I A L BOGOTA 003986

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR WHA/AND, WHA/USOAS, DRL

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/27/2016
TAGS: PREL PGOV PTER PHUM CO
SUBJECT: GOC LAUNCHES PROGRAM OF COMMUNITY RAPPROCHEMENT IN
URABA REGION


Classified By: Ambassador William B. Wood. Reasons: 1.4 (b) and (d).

--------------
Summary
--------------


1. (C) On April 24-25, the new GOC Special Representative for
Uraba and officials of several GOC ministries visited
Apartado, Antioquia Department, to discuss economic
development projects and delivery of social services with
local officials and residents. The delegation traveled to
the town center of San Jose de Apartado and held two town
hall meetings. The visit is the third in a series that will
continue as the GOC reaches out with special aid to areas in
conflict with high numbers of displaced persons. End summary.

-------------- --
Town Hall Meetings: The Silent Majority Speaks?
-------------- --


2. (U) Jaime Avendano, the new "Special Representative for
Uraba" held town hall meetings with the Apartado mayor,
Phidalo Banguero, in the municipal capital of Apartado and
near the urban center of San Jose de Apartado on April 24 and

25. Avendano was accompanied by representatives of GOC
ministries, PolOff, and two Embassy LES employees. Avendano
opened the meetings by admitting that the GOC had in the past
lost the trust of its people who suffered from the conflict
or had been neglected. It was now time for hope, renewal and
change. The tone of the meetings was positive and
constructive. Residents in San Jose de Apartado greeted the
delegation with flowers, coconut milk, fresh fruits and
vegetables to eat. While the delegation was mostly
listening, some members made immediate commitments for
assistance.


3. (U) One speaker thanked Avendano and said he was glad
rural development decisions were finally being made in
Apartado and not in Bogota. Others said they were happy the
national government was finally listening to the concerns of
the average rural resident, not only those of the Peace
Community of San Jose de Apartado. Finally, another speaker
said the Peace Community should be reprimanded for refusing
to open a dialogue with the GOC, whether they had been given
special rights by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights or
not. (The IACHR decision to require the GOC to implement
"provisional measures" for protection of the Community is not
widely understood.)

--------------
That's Cacao, not Coca
--------------


4. (U) CCAI's permanent Apartado team, lead by Luis Mario
Gaviria, asked invitees to come to the meetings prepared to
discuss trade and development issues as well as health and
social welfare. Two associations of residents prepared a
statistical report about the economic needs of the area,
explaining the major crops (cacao, bananas, yucca, corn,
avocados and beans) and the needs for economic development.


5. (U) A number of speakers said they regretted that the
cacao industry -- once a profitable, stable cash crop for the
municipality -- had been uprooted as a result of
displacement. Apartado at one time produced 1,600 tons of
refined cacao a year, employing over 500,000 workers. Others
said they couldn't get their avocado crops to market because
of the high cost of gasoline, the low sale price of avocadoes
(200 pesos, or US $0.08 each) and crumbling roads awaiting
repair. (The Department of Antioquia just closed bidding for
a contract to repair the 12-kilometer main road into San Jose
de Apartado. The contract is for 400 million pesos, or US
$170,000, for patch repairs.)


6. (U) Residents primarily expressed the need to obtain:
housing, access to emergency and routine health services,
food security, identification documents, reliable water and
utilities service, trash collection, primary and secondary
education for children and adults, apprenticeship training
(which contributes to greater success applying for
microlending),microlending credits, microenterprise
counseling, and titles for land. Residents also said they
wanted to make sure GOC assistance was sustainable, and that
in the long-term the GOC would address the issue of
concessions or land that had been abandoned where the former
owners would not be returning. (Some 80,000 people have
voluntarily registered as being displaced in Apartado
municipality, and there is a moratorium on buying or selling
houses in San Jose de Apartado to protect the displaced.)


-------------- --------------
San Jose de Apartado Growing, Peace Community Shrinking
-------------- --------------


7. (U) Residents have been returning to the town center of
San Jose de Apartado. After the massacre in February 2005,
when 8 members of the community (of whom, three belonged to
the Peace Community) were killed by as yet unidentified
assailants, the town was virtually empty. But after the
police returned to the town in March 2005, people began to
return and now some 57 families (285 residents) live there.
In March 2005 there were only 3 businesses operating, while
today there are 27. On March 1, 2006, the community
celebrated the annual Avocado Festival -- complete with
beauty pageant and parade -- for the first time in 10 years,
which residents said was an important symbol of community
solidarity and return to normalcy.


8. (U) The Peace Community, on the other hand, has dwindled
by 40 percent from an original 80 families to only 47 over
the past year. During an internal CCAI meeting, Gaviria said
he would continue to press members of the Peace Community
formerly located in San Jose de Apartado town center (now
displaced to a private farm called "La Holandita" nearby) to
accept the services offered by the GOC. A number of Peace
Community residents have returned to the town center to
enroll their children in school. Both Gaviria and Avendano
expressed frustration that leaders of the Peace Community had
rejected invitations to meet them. They invited community
members to attend the town hall meetings, however, and a few
did.


9. (U) Some 111 children now attend classes in the town
center of San Jose de Apartado from preschool through fifth
grade for four hours a day. There are 25 adults studying

primary school classes on Saturdays as well, and residents
are trying to gather the minimum 40 students required to
conduct a GED class.

-------------- --------------
Building Trust, Reestablishing Security a Slow Battle
-------------- --------------


10. (U) During the town hall meetings, Gaviria said he wanted
to improve the image of the GOC with Apartado residents,
especially children. He told a story where he asked a
student in San Jose de Apartado, "How did Simon Bolivar die?"
To which the student responded, "The Army killed him."
(Bolivar died of tuberculosis.) Gaviria said he hoped that
the 1,300 families in the San Jose de Apartado area (6,500
residents) would continue to support his work and that of the
security forces trying to protect them.


11. (C) According to Major Cubides, local commander of the
National Police, the number of police decreased from 355 in
March 2005 (only 55 of which were in the town center on
patrol) to 165 soldiers (with 45 on patrol) today. Likewise,
Colonel Padilla, commander of the Voltigeros Battallion of
the 17th Brigade, said that in March 2005 there were over 100
footsoldiers on patrol or conducting operations in the town
center, while now only 30 remain.


12. (U) The police agreed to work with members of the Peace
Community regarding the memorial that the Community had
constructed in the town square. The Peace Community built
the memorial in early 2005 to honor over 400 residents of the
area whom they believed were killed in conflict. In May
2005, Community members began to break down the memorial
using its components (small colored rocks) to create smaller
monuments in the region. The structure that remained had
many sharp edges, and according to Cubides three children who
were climbing on it had been hurt, one requiring stitches.
The police started to tear down the remaining structure to
make it less dangerous, which the Peace Community protested
on its website. Cubides agreed tearing down the monument
could be perceived as insensitive, and said he'd work with
the Peace Community in the future to find a mutually
acceptable solution to the problem.

--------------
Background: GOC Outreach
--------------


13. (U) In late January, the Prosecutor General, the Minister
of Defense, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the
Director of ACCI and the Director of the Vice President's
Program on Human Rights met to develop a strategy to bring
social assistance to residents of the conflictive region of

the Gulf of Uraba, which includes the peace communities of
Cacarica, Jiguamiando, Curvarado and San Jose de Apartado.
The group decided to send two simultaneous delegations on
February 15 to the peace communities in Cacarica and San Jose
de Apartado, bringing health and social services.


14. (U) During the week of April 10, the group named Jaime
Avendano to be the new "Special Representative for Uraba."
Avendano is based in the Center for Coordination of Integral
Action (CCAI),which falls under the Presidential Agency for
Social Action and International Cooperation (ACCI). His
office covers issues in 51 municipalities over 53,000 square
miles, and 1.8 million people.


15. (U) Avendano's April 24-25 visit to Apartado, Antioquia
Department, was to discuss productive projects and assistance
programs. PolOff, a State Department LES Legal Analyst and a
USAID LES Program Assistant accompanied the CCAI delegation,
which included seconded members of the Ministries of
Agriculture, Culture, Defense, Education, Foreign Affairs,
Health, and Interior and Justice; the Family Welfare
Institute, the National Apprenticeship Service, the Institute
of Sports, the Institute for Rural and Economic Development,
the National Police, and ACCI. Another CCAI visit is
scheduled for mid-May.
WOOD