Excerpted from: ERRI DAILY INTELLIGENCE REPORT-ERRI Risk Assessment Services-Wednesday, May 12, 1999-Vol. 5, No. 132-09:43CDT
LEAD FOCUS
POLICE STUDY SHOWS COLOMBIAN REBEL ATTACKS ON THE INCREASE
By Steve Macko, ERRI Risk Analyst
COLOMBIA (EmergencyNet News) - According to official reports Colombia's leftist rebels are steadily increasing their "terrorist" attacks against the state as they continue to amass billions of dollars from drug-trafficking, extortion and kidnapping. Police crime statistics for 1998, released on Tuesday, showed Colombia's estimated 20,000 guerrillas carried out 1,726 "terrorist" acts, including bombings and assaults on military facilities, last year -- 12 percent more than in 1997.
As was reported by EmergencyNet News on Tuesday, a separate army study said the two main leftist guerrilla groups had raised at least US$5.3 billion from 1991 through 1998 from the drug trade, abductions and extortion to fund their long-running uprising against the state.
According to the police report, in some of the worst terrorist operations, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) packed corpses, donkeys and even tortoises with explosives. The report said: "In their terrorist actions, the FARC has used corpses, donkeys, tortoises, footballs, tricycles, dumper trucks and especially gas cylinders."
More than 35,000 people have died in just the last ten years as a result of Colombia's three-decade-old civil conflict. And last year, the rebels were blamed for six percent, or 1,385, of a total 23,096 murders across the country. The police report did not detail the number killed by state security forces or illegal, ultra-right death squads.
According to a recent U.S. State Department report, Colombia is the third-most dangerous country in the world in terms of political violence and accounts for 34 percent of all "terrorist" acts committed worldwide. Coupled with military actions, the FARC and the ELN have resorted to widespread criminal activities to finance their uprising to topple the state and usher in a socialist regime.
Monday's army report said the two groups had earned US$2.3 billion from narco-trafficking in the last eight years, US$1.2 billion from kidnapping and US$1.8 billion from extorting businessmen and from robberies. The FARC and ELN deny direct links with the drug trade but admit to "taxing" traffickers.
They readily concede, however, to kidnapping civilians as a means of stuffing their war chests. In 1998, the rebels were blamed for more than 50 percent of Colombia's 2,609 reported cases of kidnapping. Many political analysts say the rebels have all but abandoned their ideological roots of the 1960s and that they have become highly organized criminal gangs interested only in reaping the financial spoils of war rather than achieving political aims.
Excerpted from: ERRI DAILY INTELLIGENCE REPORT-ERRI Risk Assessment Services-Tuesday, May 11, 1999-Vol. 5, No. 131-09:52CDT
COLOMBIA (EmergencyNet News) - Authorities said on Monday that Colombia's leftist guerrillas have earned more than US$5.3 billion over the last eight years through drug trafficking, kidnapping and extortion. A report issued by the army and the government's National Planning Department said the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN) -- the hemisphere's oldest and largest rebel groups -- generated US$2.3 billion from drugs alone from 1991 through 1998.
03/29/98--U.S. Hostages Still Being Held in
Colombia by Rebels (requires RealAudio player)
04/30/97-10:00CDT-- ENN Special Report - Kidnapping; A Latin American Growth Industry
Various Dates: ERRI Colombia Advisory Sheet
c) All materials copyrighted, EmergencyNet NEWS Service, 1999. All Rights Reserved. Redistribution without permission is prohibited by law.
Emergency Response and Research Institute
6348 N Milwaukee Ave, Suite 312, Chicago, Illinois 60646 USA
773-631-ERRI Voice/Voice Mail
773-631-4703 Fax
773-631-3467 Computer/Modem - EMERGENCY BBS
Internet e-mail:
Return to the Counter-Terrorism Operations Archive