February 4 and March 6

This came to us from the Center for International Policy's Colombia Program.
On February 4, Colombia's nationwide - and worldwide - public protests against the FARC guerrillas were wildly successful. Much of that success owed to organizers' efforts to stay "on message" and avoid politicization, which they mostly did. This guaranteed the largest possible participation.

Now, victims of Colombia's other armed groups want a day of their own. Led by the National Movement of Victims of State Crimes, they are calling for a national and worldwide day to reject Colombia's paramilitary groups and those who aided them. They are planning to convene on March 6th.

These victims too deserve a massive turnout. Even a quick look at today's news from Colombia reminds us that paramilitary power and impunity are still at crisis levels.
Yesterday, in the comfortable cell block housing a few dozen paramilitary leaders in the Itagüí prison outside Medellín, a surprise search yielded a 9mm pistol, a grenade, and US$6,000 in cash.

In his "Justice and Peace" testimony yesterday, paramilitary leader "Diego Vecino" spoke - without naming names - of his deep and broad support for leading politicians in the Montes de María region of Colombia's Caribbean coast.

The OAS secretary general, José Miguel Insulza, recognized that new paramilitary groups - many of them resembling mafias more than pro-government militias - are forming throughout the country.

Meanwhile, new testimonies are emerging about the Colombian military's involvement in a recent rash of "extrajudicial executions" - civilians detained and killed, with their bodies later presented as those of guerrillas killed in combat. This week, a former paramilitary fighter gave evidence about cadavers presented as guerrillas in Antioquia in 2002.

The victims of paramilitaries and state actors did not have an opportunity to express themselves on February 4th, and they deserve a moment of their own with similarly broad participation. The conflict's victims need to know that their fellow citizens stand with them, regardless of who victimized them. In exchange, the protest's organizers must do their utmost to avoid seeing their own event become politicized - to devolve into an anti-government rally or something similarly divisive.

This would all seem to be uncontroversial - why shouldn't the March 6 event receive levels of support similar to what Colombia saw on February 4th? Colombia's mainstream media appears to be supportive; editorials in the El Espectador newspaper and Cambio newsweekly have already offered endorsements of the March 6 effort, reminding readers that "the country's rejection of paramilitary violence is overdue."

Yet the March 6 protest has become controversial, sadly, because of the virulent opposition it has inspired from the Colombian government. The Uribe administration, which enthusiastically joined the February 4 protests against the FARC, is rejecting the March 6 anti-paramilitary protests in the strongest possible terms. To read the rest of this article click here.