Chris Patten hopes the EU can exert influence on Colombia. Ana Carrigan, recently in Bogota, reports people there are facing stark choices
EU External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten arrives in Bogota tomorrow. He will find himself in a country facing a dangerous moment in its long struggle against the drug barons and their right-wing paramilitary armies, against a Marxist rural insurgency that has long lost its political brains, and against the urban militias of both sides, those sad, disposable hitmen, recruited in the slums, who provide an endless supply of guns for hire.
In the next few months Colombians will face a stark choice: either they must accept the continuation, and legitimisation, of the current trend towards the narco-isation, mafia-isation and paramilitar-isation of Colombian political and economic life; or, they must find the political will to force a divorce between the mafia leaders and their allies inside the institutions of the state.
Within the narrow space between these two dramatic options, the international community has a crucial role to play. It is into this space that Commissioner Patten will step. He will have been well briefed by his staff in the European Commission's Bogota delegation; by Secretary General Kofi Annan's Special Advisor, James Lemoyne; and by Bogota representative of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michael Fruhling, whose office is largely financed by the EU. He will bring President Uribe a message of support from Brussels for the Colombian government's efforts to defend itself from terrorism; he will certainly congratulate the president for respecting the results of October's elections, when the democratic left won an unprecedented victory, taking control of the governor's mansion in a major state, winning the mayoralties of the four largest cities, including Bogota, and thus opening a historic public space for a democratic left-wing opposition.
Yet the EU's priorities in Colombia - fostering human rights, strengthening the country's frail democracy, and supporting grassroots peace efforts - are not necessarily shared by President Uribe.
The president wants the EU to set up a "Donor Conference" in Europe later this year, at which his government would seek money for his anti-terrorism and "democratic security" policies. But there are serious obstacles. To begin with, last summer, at a major international conference organised by the UK government in London, the Colombian government committed itself to fulfilling a series of recommendations by the UN Human Rights Office, as a prior condition to any future Donor's Conference.
But the Colombians have not attempted to address most of these conditions, nor, according to the vice-president, do they intend to. Rather, they have since developed new legislation that, according to the UN, is incompatible with international human rights laws to which Colombia is a party. The government's new "anti-terrorist" legislation gives the army the authority to conduct investigations, collect evidence, carry out raids, tap telephones, and make arrests without warrants. It is the UN's view that the EU should press the Colombian government to keep its commitments in London prior to any further donor conferences.
It will not help the government's case that Commissioner Patten will also meet Colombian and European non-governmental organisations working for human rights with EU financial support. Ever since President Uribe attacked human rights defenders in a speech to his armed forces in September 2003, accusing them of being "defenders of terrorism," and "traffickers in human rights," the human rights community has been subjected to an orchestrated campaign of harassment. In its discussions with Mr Patten, the human rights community will be looking to Europe to press Mr Uribe to withdraw that speech.
Europe is the largest contributor to humanitarian and grassroots peace programmes in Colombia. To visit the EU's flagship program, the "Peace Laboratory of the Magdalena Medio," the Commissioner will travel to the grimy, tropical, river port oil town of Barrancabermeja - one of the most dangerous cities in the country. Three years ago, Barrancabermeja became the first city in Colombia to fall under paramilitary control, and despite a massive presence in the city of police, naval and army battalions, all protecting the national oil refinery, the city and its residents have remained under effective paramilitary control ever since.
In Barrancabermeja, the Commissioner will meet an extraordinary group of people working to build community and sustainable development projects, in a town where 150 people were murdered by paramilitaries last year, 80 people were "disappeared," and over 800 were forcibly displaced from their homes.
Last July, the president cut a deal with the leaders of the most powerful paramilitary force, the AUC, whereby it was agreed that the leaders and all 13,000 of their fighters would demobilise by the end of 2005. The government also proposes to introduce legislation to allow those who had committed atrocities to avoid jail time in return for cash. "Chequebook impunity" was how Human Rights Watch characterised the legislation. This week, in the search for "social consensus" on the "paramilitary phenomenon," the Colombian Congress is holding public hearings on what has become known as the "Alternative Law." One issue of great interest to the senators and congressmen has to do with the length of time before the amnestied AUC leaders, be they drug traffickers or mass murderers, can be permitted to hold office.
Commissioner Patten should spell out for the government the diplomatic and financial price they will pay for caving in to the mafia. Mr Patten is in a good position to lay down some minimal benchmarks, within which the international community could help the government to bring the paramilitaries in from the war, but without impunity and with respect for the rule of law, justice and the collective memory.