Pubdate: Fri, 30 Aug 2002
Source: Associated Press (Wire)
Copyright: 2002 Associated Press
Author: Andrew Selsky, Associated Press

IN COLOMBIAN TOWN FULL OF SOLDIERS AND POLICE, RIGHT-WING DEATH SQUADS HOLD
SWAY

PUERTO ASIS, Colombia (AP) Black spirals of buzzards mark the fresh corpses
that turn up in this frontier town and in the nearby coca fields, jungle and
pastures, where paramilitary death squads roam freely, killing suspected
rebel collaborators or anyone else who gets in their way.

Despite patrols by Colombian soldiers and police, the carnage is mounting,
and terrified residents don't know where to turn for help.

''We are in Puerto Asis, where there is no justice, no law,'' snapped a
medical worker, who asked not to be named for fear he might be killed for
speaking out. ''Someone could come into this office right now and shoot me,
and nothing would ever come of it.''

The paramilitaries have waged a war of terror across Colombia in their zeal
to combat the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and a smaller
rebel group.

Their bloody battle is among the greatest obstacles to President Alvaro
Uribe's promises of finally bringing peace to this country after years of
bloodshed. The FARC is fighting its own war against the government, a
conflict that has stretched 38 years.

In the meantime, Colombian civilians like the residents of Puerto Asis are
caught in the middle.

In only a few months, dozens of civilians, including two mayoral candidates,
have been shot dead in this town in the steamy southern lowlands of
Colombia's cocaine heartland. Many wind up buried in body bags in the
trash-strewn ''nameless'' section of the town cemetery.

Police and soldiers set up checkpoints and patrol streets filled with
snarling motorcycles, smog-belching buses and horse-drawn carts. But they
seem unable to stop the bloodshed.

Even the presence in town of an U.S.-trained army counternarcotics battalion
has had no effect. Planes and U.S.-donated Black Hawk helicopters regularly
fly along the horizon on their way to fumigate the coca fields.

Authorities say the killers get away scot-free because few witnesses want to
point fingers at paramilitary group, the United Self-Defense Forces of
Colombia.

''They are afraid to report the killings, because they think there will be
reprisals against them,'' said Puerto Asis Mayor Manuel Alzate, who survived
an assassination attempt last year.

Residents admit they're terrified of being targeted, but also suspect the
police and army turn a blind eye to the killings.

A paramilitary leader, contacted on the phone in Puerto Asis, refused an
interview request. Members of the outlawed group openly prowl through town,
wearing baseball caps over close-cropped hair, pistols stuck into jeans
beneath loose-fitting shirts.

''To arrest someone, we need an arrest warrant,'' insisted a police officer
at the police station, protected by sandbags and rifle-toting officers. ''We
can't arrest someone just because he looks suspicious.''

The paramilitaries moved into Puerto Asis about three years ago, while FARC
guerrillas occupy rural areas outside the town. The guerrillas are known to
commit their own killings in areas they control. The area is becoming among
the world's deadliest places, with 128 reported homicides this year,
hospital records say. Many more are thought to have gone unreported.

That's a ratio of 450 homicides per 100,000 people. In the United States,
the ratio last year was 5.5 per 100,000.

On the evening of July 28, Leonidas Yague, a municipal official until he
resigned in May to run for mayor, left his mother at home and headed to a
nearby store, only to be slain on the street.

''He said, 'Mom, I'll be back in a little while,''' his mother, Rosa
Benavides, recalled as tears sprang to her eyes. ''Twenty minutes later he
was dead.''

According to the police report, an unidentified gunman shot Yague five
times.

''He said he would never leave me,'' said Benavides, a stocky 73-year- old
widow with swept-back short hair. ''I'm left all alone here.''

Other victims included Serafin Merino, another candidate for mayor, who was
shot in the head more than a dozen times on Aug. 22 outside a hospital. Days
earlier, a woman was executed after she allegedly slapped a paramilitary
gunman in a bar.

One of the few who takes the carnage in stride is funeral director Maria
Cruz.

''Business is great, thank God,'' she told a reporter without a hint of
irony, sitting amid empty coffins trimmed with purple velvet. ''Sometimes
there are bodies everywhere.''

In his first month in office, Uribe launched citizen watch groups in
northern Colombia, which authorities say will be extended to Puerto Asis.

Lt. Col. Dario Diaz, commander of the counternarcotics battalion, promises
to crack down on the paramilitaries.

''We'll stake out their place, and when they commit a crime, we'll get
them,'' Diaz said, slapping his hands together like a trap snapping shut.

But many residents say it would be virtual suicide to inform on the
paramilitaries.

''Those who make an accusation against the killers better have their plane
ticket ready to fly to another country,'' the medical worker said.
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