A-Infos (en) Death Squad Kills Up to 30 in Colombian Oil Town

[Tom Burghardt <tburghardt@igc.apc.org>]

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        DEATH SQUAD KILLS UP TO 30 IN COLOMBIAN OIL TOWN
_________________________________________________________________
 
     02:34 p.m May 17, 1998 Eastern
     By Karl Penhaul
 
     BOGOTA, May 17 (Reuters) - At least 10 people were killed
and 20 were missing, feared dead, after a suspected right-wing
death squad swept through Colombia's main oil town before dawn on
Sunday, authorities said.
   
     The attack in Barrancabermeja, in northeastern Santander
province, was the latest incident in a wave of violence that
political analysts say is part of a paramilitary campaign to sow
terror before the May 31 presidential elections.
   
     If the latest death toll is confirmed, it will take to more
than 80 the number of victims slain by ultra-right death squads
across the country in the last month.
   
     ``There are 30 people either confirmed dead or reported
disappeared,'' Elkin Bueno, mayor of Barrancabermeja, told
Reuters by telephone.
   
     ``We fear all those people are dead...We presume it was a
(right-wing) paramilitary gang,'' he said before going into an
emergency security council meeting.
   
     Provincial police chief Gen. Tobias Duran Quintanilla said
10 men aged 20 to 25 were so far confirmed dead and at least 20
others were missing after the raid on four working-class
neighborhoods.
   
     He told local media about 50 hooded gunmen arrived in two
trucks and began calling out the names of their victims from a
list -- one of the hallmarks of paramilitary attacks. Some were
shot immediately while others were dragged away.
   
     ``There are 10 people dead and we're talking of 20 people
disappeared. Maybe some hid when they saw what was happening but
others were certainly taken away,'' Duran said. ``We're searching
to see if those people turn up dead or alive.''
   
     The areas where the death squad struck were considered
hard-core support bases for the outlawed National Liberation Army
(ELN) Marxist rebel force, and Duran said they had become no-go
areas for the police, who were routinely attacked if they
ventured in.
   
     International human rights groups accuse the military of
backing Colombia's burgeoning right-wing death squads in a
``dirty war'' against leftist rebels and civilians seen as
sympathizing with them.
   
     Gunmen shot to death former defense minister Gen. Fernando
Landazabal in a Bogota suburb last week. Military sources
initially blamed the crime on the ELN's urban militias but the
respected El Espectador newspaper on Sunday quoted unnamed
sources as attributing it to the ``dark hand of a right-wing
group trying to destabilize the country.''
   
     It hinted that a shadowy army intelligence unit, known as
the 20th Brigade, might be linked to Landazabal's death. The unit
is also being blamed for the murder of prominent human rights
lawyer Eduardo Umana late last month.
   
     A former head of the 20th Brigade, Gen. Ivan Ramirez, said
Friday that Washington had withdrawn his U.S. entry visa -- the
first to be taken away from a Colombian military officer -- amid
allegations that he had organized ``terrorist'' groups.
 
     Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
 
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