- BOGOTA (EFE) - Besieged by
spiraling political and criminal violence, the new Colombian government
has authorized a wide range of measures which will give the military and
police new and tougher tools to crack down on threats to security.
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- A decree signed Tuesday by President Alvaro Uribe allows
arrests and searches without warrants, permits officials to listen in on
suspicious communications and establishes "special zones" under
military jurisdiction in conflictive regions.
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- Some of the measures give judicial powers to the country's
armed forces and police and were immediately criticized by some politicians,
labor unions and human rights organizations.
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- The decree widens steps announced last Aug 11, four days
after Uribe took office, designed to stem the violence, terrorism and crime
which has transformed Colombia into South America's most dangerous country.
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- Included in the decree was the authorization for security
agencies to restrict travel by private individuals and the use of private
property by government officials if necessary.
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- It also permits authorities "to intercept, scan
or record by any technological means available all types of communications
when it is suspected they involve terrorist activities."
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- In those areas of the country considered under threat
from armed groups, the government will now have the power to impose curfews
and control the movements and changes of residence by the inhabitants.
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- Successive Colombian governments have been fighting a
leftist insurgency for almost four decades led by the Colombian Revolutionary
Armed Forces, or FARC, which regularly stage attacks and kidnappings.
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- Another leftist guerrilla group, the National Liberation
Army, is also active, and both deal in the cocaine and heroin trade to
finance their war against the authorities.
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- In addition, right-wing paramilitary bands suppress peasants
and battle the military in many regions of the country. Colombia also suffers
from widespread lawlessness by common criminals.
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- "These measures which the current government has
taken are not strategies for war but rather a way in which Colombians with
the support of the authorities abandon their passiveness and defend themselves
against the violent ones," said Defense Minister Marta LucÌa
Ramirez.
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