COLOMBIA:
Reporters Caught Between
a Rock and a Hard Place
By
Constanza Vieira
BOGOTA, (IPS) -
Between 6:00 and 7:00 AM
Friday there was no
regular news broadcast
in the northeastern
Colombian town of
Saravena. Instead, the
Notifrontera news team
of the Sarare Estéreo
radio station read out a
brief statement and
played Colombian folk
music.
Notifrontera is
Saravena’s only local
newscast, although
people in the town can
also listen to the La
Voz del Cinaruco radio
station from Arauca, the
capital of the
department (province) of
the same name, which
borders Venezuela.
"It is us that people
here listen to, because
of our quality and our
work with the community,
and because we carry out
our work with humility
and
straightforwardness,"
the producer of
Notifrontera, Emiro
Goyeneche, comments to
IPS.
His voice sounds sad and
tired. "Our situation is
critical," he adds.
He says that since last
Sunday, "nothing is
moving, not even a fly,
in this town, or in the
entire department,"
where the Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia
(FARC) -- the main rebel
group involved in the
country’s four-decade
armed conflict -- has
declared a "paro armado"
or "armed stoppage".
At exactly 6:09 AM
Thursday, the radio
station received a call
from a listener during
the "Community
Participation" programme.
When the journalist
asked for the caller’s
name, he said "I am the
commander of FARC Front
45, and I have a
communiqué to read."
Goyeneche.explains that
as the caller was
reading out his
statement, the call was
cut off, and the man,
clearly angry, phoned
back shortly. "He read
out the entire
statement, I asked him a
couple of questions, but
he hung up without
responding to the second
one," he adds.
On Tuesday, the FARC
sent four radio stations
in Arauca two
communiqués as well as a
handwritten note
demanding that the
reporters read out the
entire text of both
statements, three times
a day, over the course
of two days.
"If you do not obey this
order, you will be
declared a military
target," the note said.
"One of our newsreaders
read out parts of the
communiqués," says
Goyeneche. But the next
day the station received
a number of threatening
phone calls because they
had not read out the
entire statements.
The FARC statements
warned that as a result
of the paro armado, "all
traffic is prohibited on
the roads in Arauca."
The Notifrontera
journalists were later
summoned to the local
army post in Saravena.
At the army post,
representatives of "the
state, the army, the
police, the city
government and even the
local ombudsman’s office
told us that they were
bringing legal charges
against us, that we
could go to prison, and
that our station could
be closed. We were told
this by the battalion’s
legal officer, who spoke
to us in legal terms,
referring to the crime
we committed by reading
out the communiqué,"
says Goyeneche.
"He told us we were the
guerrillas’ sounding
board. We told them we
did it under threat of
death. The police chief
understood the situation
better than he did. Our
lives are at extreme
risk," he adds.
With regard to
Thursday’s phone call
from the man identifying
himself as a FARC
commander, the military
"asked us for the
recording and didn't say
anything else."
The Sarare Estéreo radio
station’s staff is made
up of 14 people,
including the six
journalists on the
Notifrontera team.
Notifrontera’s
resolution not to
broadcast the news on
Friday "was a decision
reached by the team,"
says Goyeneche.
In their statement, the
reporters said Friday
that "they should tell
us whether or not our
news programme has been
shut down; they should
let us do our work. The
state should not
pressure us, and the
guerrillas should
respect our freedom of
the press. We are
working with the
community, and we
believe we are doing a
good job," Goyeneche
explains.
"What we are trying to
do is work, be able to
inform the public,
produce a newscast with
ethics. And on one hand
they tell us ‘read!’ and
on the other they say
‘don't read!’ This
really puts us in a
bind," he adds.
The Colombian government
provides certain
security measures to
trade unionists,
reporters and others who
have received threats.
These may consist of
cell-phones, bodyguards
or armour-plated cars.
Because of previous
threats, Goyeneche was
given a cell-phone and
was assigned a kind of
"minder" -- a member of
the security forces who
checks up on him twice a
week. He has not been
informed of any
additional measures. But
he does not complain,
saying "it's hard enough
for them to take care of
themselves."
In FARC’s statements,
the rebel group said it
was commemorating Friday
the death (from natural
causes) of Jacobo
Arenas, the group’s
second-in-command, 17
years ago.
They pointed out that,
in the context of peace
talks led by Arenas that
were being successfully
carried out at the time,
in 1985, "the FARC
promoted the Patriotic
Union (UP) political
movement, the only
chance that the
Colombian people had to
forge an alternative,
leftist political hope,
which was exterminated
by fire and sword," with
more than 5,000 people
killed.
The guerrillas also
complained that "the
great majority of
inhabitants have been
displaced" from at least
44 villages in Arauca;
that "around 3,000
displaced persons" have
fled across the border
to Venezuela; and that a
"gringo" (U.S.) military
base is being built in
the El Lipa municipality
of Arauca.
Furthermore, they said
that "more than 30
civilians in the
municipality of Tame
have been murdered in
the past three months."
Just as the campaign for
the Oct. 28 local and
regional elections is
getting underway (the
candidate registration
period closed on
Wednesday), the FARC is
demanding that the
governor, the seven
mayors, and all of the
town councillors in the
department of Arauca
resign, and that all of
the candidates withdraw
from the race.
"The electoral process
here is going to be very
difficult," warns
Goyeneche.
The FARC "wants to
increase voter
abstention, keep people
from going to the polls
and trigger a collapse
of the institutions,"
León Valencia, head of
the non-governmental
Corporación Nuevo Arco
Iris, tells IPS.
The average national
abstention rate is 57
percent for
parliamentary elections
and slightly lower for
local elections.
In the March 2006
legislative elections,
the FARC declared a paro
armado "and thus drove
abstention up by 12
percent in the areas
where it is active,"
says Valencia.
In the southern
department of Caquetá,
"they increased it by 18
percent above the
national average," he
adds.
Colombia’s
second-largest insurgent
group, the National
Liberation Army (ELN),
which is currently
engaged in exploratory
talks with the rightwing
government of Álvaro
Uribe, has recently been
respecting elections and
the people’s right to
vote.
In the 2006 elections,
in Arauca, where the ELN
"has greater social
influence, it did not
interfere in the
parliamentary elections,
and abstention dropped
12 percent. Which
clearly indicates that
the guerrilla groups do
have an influence when
they make a decision one
way or another," says
Valencia.
The activist notes that
in Arauca, the FARC
declared a paro armado
last year, but that due
to "the position taken
by the ELN, it was
unable in the end to
block the elections
there."
The head of Nuevo Arco
Iris says he has
detected "high tension"
in areas under FARC
influence, where "more
than 200 mayors and
1,200 town councillors
are presently facing
threats" from the rebel
group.
On the other hand, the
elections do seem to be
of great interest to the
far-right paramilitary
militias, the bitter
enemies of the leftist
insurgents. Even
politicians who are now
in prison because of
their ties to the
paramilitaries "are
active electorally,"
says Valencia.
The majority of
legislators, leaders and
others who we have
identified as having
links and commitments to
the paramilitaries in
the areas under their
influence are free, and
will actively
participate in the
coming elections, he
says.
"There are 176 people
who have been
identified. But that is
the tip of the iceberg
with respect to the
entire ‘parapolitics’
process that we saw in
the 2002, 2003 and 2006
elections," adds
Valencia.
Paramilitary commanders
have publicly claimed
that they control at
least 35 percent of the
members of the national
Congress.
Candidates and local
politicians face threats
from both the
paramilitaries and the
leftwing rebels. The
government says 25
percent of the country’s
municipalities are
facing risks in the
elections. But Nuevo
Arco Iris puts the
proportion higher, at
one-third.
There are a total of
70,000 candidates
representing 244 new
parties. But 89 of these
parties registered just
one candidate.
"A number of shady
political agents are
camouflaged in those
parties, with the aim of
gaining power," said
political scientist
Elizabeth Ungar, head of
Congreso Visible. "The
political map is
beginning to show that
the paramilitaries or
sectors and individuals
with links to them are
gaining a very strong
presence," she told IPS.
Congreso Visible, a
research project at the
University of Los Andes,
promotes citizen
monitoring of Congress
and access to elected
representatives, thus
advocating citizen
participation.
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