Reporters caught between a rock and a hard place
Friday, 17 August 2007
Constanza Vieira
Between 6:00 and 7:00 AM Friday there was no regular news broadcast in the northeastern Colombian town of Saravena. Instead, the Notifrontera news team of the Sarare Estéreo radio station read out a brief statement and played Colombian folk music.
Notifrontera is Saravena's only local newscast, although people in the town can also listen to the La Voz del Cinaruco radio station from Arauca, the capital of the department (province) of the same name, which borders Venezuela.
"It is us that people here listen to, because of our quality and our work with the community, and because we carry out our work with humility and straightforwardness," the producer of Notifrontera, Emiro Goyeneche, comments to IPS.
His voice sounds sad and tired. "Our situation is critical," he adds.
He says that since last Sunday, "nothing is moving, not even a fly, in this town, or in the entire department," where the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) -- the main rebel group involved in the country's four-decade armed conflict -- has declared a "paro armado" or "armed stoppage".
At exactly 6:09 AM Thursday, the radio station received a call from a listener during the "Community Participation" programme. When the journalist asked for the caller's name, he said "I am the commander of FARC Front 45, and I have a communiqué to read."
Goyeneche.explains that as the caller was reading out his statement, the call was cut off, and the man, clearly angry, phoned back shortly. "He read out the entire statement, I asked him a couple of questions, but he hung up without responding to the second one," he adds.
On Tuesday, the FARC sent four radio stations in Arauca two communiqués as well as a handwritten note demanding that the reporters read out the entire text of both statements, three times a day, over the course of two days.
"If you do not obey this order, you will be declared a military target," the note said.
"One of our newsreaders read out parts of the communiqués," says Goyeneche. But the next day the station received a number of threatening phone calls because they had not read out the entire statements.
The FARC statements warned that as a result of the paro armado, "all traffic is prohibited on the roads in Arauca."
The Notifrontera journalists were later summoned to the local army post in Saravena.
At the army post, representatives of "the state, the army, the police, the city government and even the local ombudsman's office told us that they were bringing legal charges against us, that we could go to prison, and that our station could be closed. We were told this by the battalion's legal officer, who spoke to us in legal terms, referring to the crime we committed by reading out the communiqué," says Goyeneche.
"He told us we were the guerrillas' sounding board. We told them we did it under threat of death. The police chief understood the situation better than he did. Our lives are at extreme risk," he adds.
With regard to Thursday's phone call from the man identifying himself as a FARC commander, the military "asked us for the recording and didn't say anything else."
The Sarare Estéreo radio station's staff is made up of 14 people, including the six journalists on the Notifrontera team.
Notifrontera's resolution not to broadcast the news on Friday "was a decision reached by the team," says Goyeneche.
In their statement, the reporters said Friday that "they should tell us whether or not our news programme has been shut down; they should let us do our work. The state should not pressure us, and the guerrillas should respect our freedom of the press. We are working with the community, and we believe we are doing a good job," Goyeneche explains.
"What we are trying to do is work, be able to inform the public, produce a newscast with ethics. And on one hand they tell us 'read!' and on the other they say 'don't read!' This really puts us in a bind," he adds.
The Colombian government provides certain security measures to trade unionists, reporters and others who have received threats. These may consist of cell-phones, bodyguards or armour-plated cars.
Because of previous threats, Goyeneche was given a cell-phone and was assigned a kind of "minder" -- a member of the security forces who checks up on him twice a week. He has not been informed of any additional measures. But he does not complain, saying "it's hard enough for them to take care of themselves."
In FARC's statements, the rebel group said it was commemorating Friday the death (from natural causes) of Jacobo Arenas, the group's second-in-command, 17 years ago.
They pointed out that, in the context of peace talks led by Arenas that were being successfully carried out at the time, in 1985, "the FARC promoted the Patriotic Union (UP) political movement, the only chance that the Colombian people had to forge an alternative, leftist political hope, which was exterminated by fire and sword," with more than 5,000 people killed.
The guerrillas also complained that "the great majority of inhabitants have been displaced" from at least 44 villages in Arauca; that "around 3,000 displaced persons" have fled across the border to Venezuela; and that a "gringo" (U.S.) military base is being built in the El Lipa municipality of Arauca.
Furthermore, they said that "more than 30 civilians in the municipality of Tame have been murdered in the past three months."
Just as the campaign for the Oct. 28 local and regional elections is getting underway (the candidate registration period closed on Wednesday), the FARC is demanding that the governor, the seven mayors, and all of the town councillors in the department of Arauca resign, and that all of the candidates withdraw from the race.
"The electoral process here is going to be very difficult," warns Goyeneche.
The FARC "wants to increase voter abstention, keep people from going to the polls and trigger a collapse of the institutions," León Valencia, head of the non-governmental Corporación Nuevo Arco Iris, tells IPS.
The average national abstention rate is 57 percent for parliamentary elections and slightly lower for local elections.
In the March 2006 legislative elections, the FARC declared a paro armado "and thus drove abstention up by 12 percent in the areas where it is active," says Valencia.
In the southern department of Caquetá, "they increased it by 18 percent above the national average," he adds.
Colombia's second-largest insurgent group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), which is currently engaged in exploratory talks with the rightwing government of Álvaro Uribe, has recently been respecting elections and the people's right to vote.
In the 2006 elections, in Arauca, where the ELN "has greater social influence, it did not interfere in the parliamentary elections, and abstention dropped 12 percent. Which clearly indicates that the guerrilla groups do have an influence when they make a decision one way or another," says Valencia.
The activist notes that in Arauca, the FARC declared a paro armado last year, but that due to "the position taken by the ELN, it was unable in the end to block the elections there."
The head of Nuevo Arco Iris says he has detected "high tension" in areas under FARC influence, where "more than 200 mayors and 1,200 town councillors are presently facing threats" from the rebel group.
On the other hand, the elections do seem to be of great interest to the far-right paramilitary militias, the bitter enemies of the leftist insurgents. Even politicians who are now in prison because of their ties to the paramilitaries "are active electorally," says Valencia.
The majority of legislators, leaders and others who we have identified as having links and commitments to the paramilitaries in the areas under their influence are free, and will actively participate in the coming elections, he says.
"There are 176 people who have been identified. But that is the tip of the iceberg with respect to the entire 'parapolitics' process that we saw in the 2002, 2003 and 2006 elections," adds Valencia.
Paramilitary commanders have publicly claimed that they control at least 35 percent of the members of the national Congress.
Candidates and local politicians face threats from both the paramilitaries and the leftwing rebels. The government says 25 percent of the country's municipalities are facing risks in the elections. But Nuevo Arco Iris puts the proportion higher, at one-third.
There are a total of 70,000 candidates representing 244 new parties. But 89 of these parties registered just one candidate.
..............................
Inter Press Service
Between 6:00 and 7:00 AM Friday there was no regular news broadcast in the northeastern Colombian town of Saravena. Instead, the Notifrontera news team of the Sarare Estéreo radio station read out a brief statement and played Colombian folk music.
Notifrontera is Saravena's only local newscast, although people in the town can also listen to the La Voz del Cinaruco radio station from Arauca, the capital of the department (province) of the same name, which borders Venezuela.
"It is us that people here listen to, because of our quality and our work with the community, and because we carry out our work with humility and straightforwardness," the producer of Notifrontera, Emiro Goyeneche, comments to IPS.
His voice sounds sad and tired. "Our situation is critical," he adds.
He says that since last Sunday, "nothing is moving, not even a fly, in this town, or in the entire department," where the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) -- the main rebel group involved in the country's four-decade armed conflict -- has declared a "paro armado" or "armed stoppage".
At exactly 6:09 AM Thursday, the radio station received a call from a listener during the "Community Participation" programme. When the journalist asked for the caller's name, he said "I am the commander of FARC Front 45, and I have a communiqué to read."
Goyeneche.explains that as the caller was reading out his statement, the call was cut off, and the man, clearly angry, phoned back shortly. "He read out the entire statement, I asked him a couple of questions, but he hung up without responding to the second one," he adds.
On Tuesday, the FARC sent four radio stations in Arauca two communiqués as well as a handwritten note demanding that the reporters read out the entire text of both statements, three times a day, over the course of two days.
"If you do not obey this order, you will be declared a military target," the note said.
"One of our newsreaders read out parts of the communiqués," says Goyeneche. But the next day the station received a number of threatening phone calls because they had not read out the entire statements.
The FARC statements warned that as a result of the paro armado, "all traffic is prohibited on the roads in Arauca."
The Notifrontera journalists were later summoned to the local army post in Saravena.
At the army post, representatives of "the state, the army, the police, the city government and even the local ombudsman's office told us that they were bringing legal charges against us, that we could go to prison, and that our station could be closed. We were told this by the battalion's legal officer, who spoke to us in legal terms, referring to the crime we committed by reading out the communiqué," says Goyeneche.
"He told us we were the guerrillas' sounding board. We told them we did it under threat of death. The police chief understood the situation better than he did. Our lives are at extreme risk," he adds.
With regard to Thursday's phone call from the man identifying himself as a FARC commander, the military "asked us for the recording and didn't say anything else."
The Sarare Estéreo radio station's staff is made up of 14 people, including the six journalists on the Notifrontera team.
Notifrontera's resolution not to broadcast the news on Friday "was a decision reached by the team," says Goyeneche.
In their statement, the reporters said Friday that "they should tell us whether or not our news programme has been shut down; they should let us do our work. The state should not pressure us, and the guerrillas should respect our freedom of the press. We are working with the community, and we believe we are doing a good job," Goyeneche explains.
"What we are trying to do is work, be able to inform the public, produce a newscast with ethics. And on one hand they tell us 'read!' and on the other they say 'don't read!' This really puts us in a bind," he adds.
The Colombian government provides certain security measures to trade unionists, reporters and others who have received threats. These may consist of cell-phones, bodyguards or armour-plated cars.
Because of previous threats, Goyeneche was given a cell-phone and was assigned a kind of "minder" -- a member of the security forces who checks up on him twice a week. He has not been informed of any additional measures. But he does not complain, saying "it's hard enough for them to take care of themselves."
In FARC's statements, the rebel group said it was commemorating Friday the death (from natural causes) of Jacobo Arenas, the group's second-in-command, 17 years ago.
They pointed out that, in the context of peace talks led by Arenas that were being successfully carried out at the time, in 1985, "the FARC promoted the Patriotic Union (UP) political movement, the only chance that the Colombian people had to forge an alternative, leftist political hope, which was exterminated by fire and sword," with more than 5,000 people killed.
The guerrillas also complained that "the great majority of inhabitants have been displaced" from at least 44 villages in Arauca; that "around 3,000 displaced persons" have fled across the border to Venezuela; and that a "gringo" (U.S.) military base is being built in the El Lipa municipality of Arauca.
Furthermore, they said that "more than 30 civilians in the municipality of Tame have been murdered in the past three months."
Just as the campaign for the Oct. 28 local and regional elections is getting underway (the candidate registration period closed on Wednesday), the FARC is demanding that the governor, the seven mayors, and all of the town councillors in the department of Arauca resign, and that all of the candidates withdraw from the race.
"The electoral process here is going to be very difficult," warns Goyeneche.
The FARC "wants to increase voter abstention, keep people from going to the polls and trigger a collapse of the institutions," León Valencia, head of the non-governmental Corporación Nuevo Arco Iris, tells IPS.
The average national abstention rate is 57 percent for parliamentary elections and slightly lower for local elections.
In the March 2006 legislative elections, the FARC declared a paro armado "and thus drove abstention up by 12 percent in the areas where it is active," says Valencia.
In the southern department of Caquetá, "they increased it by 18 percent above the national average," he adds.
Colombia's second-largest insurgent group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), which is currently engaged in exploratory talks with the rightwing government of Álvaro Uribe, has recently been respecting elections and the people's right to vote.
In the 2006 elections, in Arauca, where the ELN "has greater social influence, it did not interfere in the parliamentary elections, and abstention dropped 12 percent. Which clearly indicates that the guerrilla groups do have an influence when they make a decision one way or another," says Valencia.
The activist notes that in Arauca, the FARC declared a paro armado last year, but that due to "the position taken by the ELN, it was unable in the end to block the elections there."
The head of Nuevo Arco Iris says he has detected "high tension" in areas under FARC influence, where "more than 200 mayors and 1,200 town councillors are presently facing threats" from the rebel group.
On the other hand, the elections do seem to be of great interest to the far-right paramilitary militias, the bitter enemies of the leftist insurgents. Even politicians who are now in prison because of their ties to the paramilitaries "are active electorally," says Valencia.
The majority of legislators, leaders and others who we have identified as having links and commitments to the paramilitaries in the areas under their influence are free, and will actively participate in the coming elections, he says.
"There are 176 people who have been identified. But that is the tip of the iceberg with respect to the entire 'parapolitics' process that we saw in the 2002, 2003 and 2006 elections," adds Valencia.
Paramilitary commanders have publicly claimed that they control at least 35 percent of the members of the national Congress.
Candidates and local politicians face threats from both the paramilitaries and the leftwing rebels. The government says 25 percent of the country's municipalities are facing risks in the elections. But Nuevo Arco Iris puts the proportion higher, at one-third.
There are a total of 70,000 candidates representing 244 new parties. But 89 of these parties registered just one candidate.
..............................
Inter Press Service