Blocchiamo i finanziamenti USA alla violenza in BOLIVIA

["Martinerrico" <martinerrico at libero.it>]

Ricevo dalla Rete Andina d'Informazione (RAI) e conoscendo la loro serietà
chiedo a tutti di appoggiare questa azione. Grazie.
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Martin E.Iglesias     martinerrico at libero.it
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³Cadauno de nosotros somos el ladrillo de nuestra futura casa....²
³Ciascuno di noi è il mattone della nostra casa futura....²
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(Dalla Campagna NoNobel - http://www.peacelink.it/tematiche/latina/nobel/)


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ACTION ALERT:
U.S. TAX DOLLARS FUND IRREGULAR FORCE
IMPLICATED IN GROSS HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN BOLIVIA

Prepared by the Andean Information Network

WRITE YOUR CONGRESS MEMBERS AND SENATORS!
(Find model letters attached and contact information below.)

BACKGROUND:

The Expeditionary Task Force (FTE) is an irregular Bolivian force, primarily
funded by the Narcotics Affairs Section of the U.S. Embassy. Its members are
hired for coca leaf eradication and law enforcement, thus they are
technically civilian contract employees, but military officers command them
and they are armed.  The FTE has been implicated in a high percentage of
gross human rights violations committed by security forces in confrontations
with coca growers in the Chapare region during the last year. International
and local human rights organizations, members of civil society, and even
Bolivian military officials have expressed their profound concern about the
role of the FTE, yet the force has recently been expanded from 500 to1500
members, and funding has been increased accordingly.

DENUNCIATIONS AGAINST THE EXPEDITIONARY TASK FORCE:

·       In December of last year, Bolivia’s Human Rights Ombudsperson, Ana
Maria Romero de Campero, sustained that the members of the Expeditionary
Task Force were mercenaries.  Romero told the press that the Bolivian
military cannot legally to increase the number of people it employs without
authorization from Congress.

·       In March of this year, five U.S. Congress members wrote a letter to
Otto Reich, Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Western Hemisphere
Affairs, denouncing the irregular status of the force and abuses committed
by its members.   They recommended that the funding for the Expeditionary
Task Force be suspended.

·       A high-ranking retired Bolivian military official also called the
force mercenary.  He stated that the force tarnished the reputation of the
military and is used for tasks that regular soldiers are unwilling to carry
out.

EXPEDITIONARY TASK FORCE KILLINGS PROCESSED THROUGH MILITARY TRIBUNALS:

Expeditionary Task Force members have killed unarmed civilians, even during
peaceful protests.  In violation of both Bolivian law and international
human rights standards, these killings have been transferred the military
courts that provides a rubber stamp of approval for impunity.  Military
tribunals also do not comply with the stipulations of the Leahy Amendment,
which calls for the suspension of U.S. funding from any security unit if
there is credible evidence of gross human rights violations and no
appropriate legal measures to bring those responsible to justice. While
civilian authorities have opened investigations, the Expeditionary Task
Force has refused to cooperate and the investigations have not progressed
impunity has reigned through these channels as well. Egregious examples
include:

·       Senda 6 Incident-- 8 coca growers shot, 3 fatally wounded
On November 15, 2001 a crowd of coca growers attempted to block the Santa
Cruz- Cochabamba highway in Senda 6.  Members of the Expeditionary Task
Force and other forces fired at the crowd killing three people:  Maximo
Rojas Siles, Abel Orozco Torrico and Claudio Quiroga Ordonez.  Another five
suffered from bullet wounds: Justo Jimenez Lopez, Benito Mayda Guzman,
Filberto Castro Fernandez, Carlos Merino, and Joeser Mamani Perez.  The
Bolivian Government and the State Department state that  “several bullets
may have ricocheted and struck the demonstrators, causing the deaths and
injuries.”   The autopsy reports and medical certificates describe shots
entering the back side of the victims’ bodies in the back, the abdomen, and
the collarbone.

·       Casimiro Huanca ColqueOn December 6, 2001 a small group of coca
producers in Chimoré began to unload fruit on the side of the
Cochabamba-Santa Cruz highway to peacefully protest the lack of markets for
alternative development products.  Members of the Expeditionary Task Force
warned farmers that they would disperse the crowd in five minutes. As the
people fled, forces tear-gassed the crowd.  Soldiers followed a few coca
growers into the Union Federation office by the highway. According to
eyewitness testimony and video footage, security officers detained and shot
the Chimoré Federation leader, Casimiro Huanca, two times inside the office
compound.  The military court conducted a hasty investigation and only
interviewed witnesses from the security forces.  The findings suggested that
the autopsy report, video footage, and multiple eyewitness accounts were not
considered.  The military tribunal ruled that Expeditionary Task Force
member Juan Eladio Bora had acted in self-defense, and that coca growers
were to blame for not properly transporting Huanca to medical attention
after he was shot. The FTE shot another man, Fructuoso Herbas, shot in the
leg during the same incident.  Originally, the State Department claimed he
was “slightly wounded above the ankle.”  In fact, Herbas’s leg required
amputation above the knee.

·       Marcos Ortiz LlanosOn January 29, 2002 an Expeditionary Task Force
patrol dispersed a group of coca growers attempting to block the
Cochabamba-Santa Cruz highway in Shinahota.  According to eyewitness
testimony, members of the forces shot directly at a group of farmers on a
market road perpendicular to the highway.  Multiple eyewitness testimonies
state that Colonel Aurelio Burgos Blacutt (School of the Americas graduate,
1974) aimed and fired directly at Marcos Ortiz Llanos. Burgos is easily
identifiable because he is missing his right forearm. Several other people
were wounded in the incident. Members of the Expeditionary Task Force
continued to beat coca growers with nightsticks and kick them after the
shooting.  Burgos admits to kicking and beating two women who identify him
as the shooter, but he claims he is innocent in the shooting.  The State
Department gives a rather fantastic account gathered from the Bolivian
Military: “Colonel Burgos saw Ortiz lying on the road wounded and Burgos
pointed while at the same time holding a pistol.  Because Burgos has only
one hand, (he is missing his right forearm), he apparently was using this
hand both to hold his pistol and to point/gesture/give orders.” This case is
also being handled by a military tribunal and has yet to come to a
conclusion.


ACTION:
PLEASE WRITE TO YOUR REPRESENTATIVES CALLING ON THEM TO:

1)      Suspend funding for the Expeditionary Task Force.

2)      Insist that the stipulations of the Leahy Amendment be applied to
the Expeditionary Task Force and other U.S.-funded security units that
commit gross human rights violations in the Bolivian Chapare.

3)      Emphasize that only civilian, not military, legal investigations and
trials comply with the Leahy Amendment, Bolivian law, and international
human rights standards.

WE HAVE ATTACHED TWO MODEL LETTERS TO PERSONALIZE OR USE AS REFERENCES.

TO CONTACT LEGISLATORS:
Congressional Switchboard: 202-224-3121
For Congress Members: www.house.gov/writerep
 <http://www.house.gov/writerep> For Senators:
http://www.senate.gov/senators/senator_by_state.cfm

 <http://www.senate.gov/senators/senator_by_state.cfm> Thank you for you
support.

==================================================
For more information or to remove your name from this list please contact
the Andean Information Network by e-mail: paz at albatros.cnb.net or
kledebur at albatros.cnb.net

For access to past updates and background information please consul tthe
updates! heading of the English section of our website: www.scbbs-bo.com/ain





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