Few Colombians will mourn the death of this Spaniard that came to our country and brought with him death, terrorism and damage to our environment. He was a sample of that weird concept called Liberation Theology that infected the Catholic Church.

It will not be forgotten that under his command the ELN killed soldiers and civilians, including young girls in their early teens, condemned to death for committing the crime of speaking to young draftees. The group also murdered monsignor Jesús Emilio Jaramillo, bishop of Arauca and the parish priest of San Jacinto. The ELN introduced the use of "leg-breaker" land mines to the country and used them against civilians. Placed in paths and roads in the Carmen de Chucurí area, they maimed or killed scores of men, women and children. The inhabitants were thus "punished" for openly shunning the ELN after years of submission to their every whim. The ELN under priest Perez, a. Poliarco, also made a flourishing business in narcotics, extortion and kidnapping. It is polite to be respectful of the memory of those who die, but in this case that is impossible. The deceased was a murderer and a terrorist of the worst kind.

The Environment Suffers

According to the state-owned oil company, ECOPETROL, guerrilla attacks on the Caño Limón-Coveñas oil pipeline during the course of the year surpass those perpetrated between 1986 and May 1997. The same pipeline suffered 466 strikes during that period, when 1,452,771 barrels of oil were spilled. In terms of lost production, this translates into 74,939,799 barrels of crude oil, which deprived the nation, its provinces and cities of the benefits to be had from Col$ 79,618,027.00 pesos in royalties, besides doing serious ecological damage to wildlife, flora and waterways. Spokesmen for the communities affected by these attacks have asked to government to file a complaint with the United Nations Commission for Human Rights, in the hope that it will order the guerrillas to stop blowing up Colombia's oil pipelines.

The Farc Tries To Air-Lift A Wounded Commander Out Of The Country

According to military intelligence, members of the FARC's 39th Front hijacked a small Cessna in Cumaribo, which was flown to Llanos del Yarí to pick up a FARC commander who had been wounded in combat at Caguán. The army has serious reason to believe this aircraft, hijacked yesterday in the jungles of Vichada, is being used by members of the FARC's Southern Command to air-lift one of its commanders out of the country. Apparently, he was hurt during the fighting at Caquetá.

An official source says that daily monitoring of radio-telephone conversations between members of the FARC's Southern Command indicate the Cessna might be somewhere in the area where the Llanos del Yarí and Caguán rivers converge. It is thought the guerrilla leaders who were responsible for the attack on the Third Mobile Brigade could have fled to this region.

Experts Identify Soldiers Killed At Caguan

Yesterday, an interdisciplinary group of experts from the Department of Forensic Medicine and the Technical Investigation Team (CTI) of the Attorney General's Office managed to identify some of the soldiers who were killed in action at El Billar and in the Caquetá jungle. Twenty-nine of the 69 bodies evacuated from the zone have been identified, thanks to dental records, tattoos, religious medals and similar items. Another ten were identified initially, on the basis of personal effects. Full verification is pending.

Figures announced by the Colombian Army indicate the fighting left 62 soldiers dead, 47 wounded and 43 kidnapped. The International Committee of the Red Cross says these men are being held by the FARC. The military is still unaware of the fate of two other soldiers.  

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