Massacres Colombia

The perennial violence of Colombia has taken some deadly new twists this year. Colombian drug-trafficking gangs, long known for their lethal treatment of outside enemies, now appear to be embroiled in a bloody vendetta among themselves. Colombian leftist guerrillas, at war for decades with the government and its security forces, recently turned heavy fire on rural townspeople.

Right-wing paramilitary fighters pulled unarmed people off buses and out of their homes in this southern village, killing at least 24 men after accusing them of aiding leftist rebels, authorities said Thursday. The massacre was one of several attacks in the country in a week, most blamed on the outlawed paramilitary forces, known as the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia. The bloodshed has claimed at least 49 lives, including four soldiers and a mayor.

President Andres Pastrana on Thursday dismissed an army general accused of failing to prevent the massacre of 36 villagers by rightist militiamen, who had warned for months that they would carry out the killings. With paramilitary violence rising, U.S. officials and leftist rebels have been demanding that Pastrana clamp down on military officers who have supported the right-wing militias. Washington is weighing a major increase in police and military aid to Colombia, but U.S.

The killers came at Easter. They butchered 18-year-old Gladys Ipia first, slicing off her head and hands with a chain saw. Next, they killed six people at a restaurant just down the trail. They shot some, stabbed others. They hacked one man to death and then burned him. And so they traveled, 200 men and teens belonging to Colombia's largest ultra-right paramilitary group, the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia.

Suspected right-wing paramilitary gunmen continued a wave of massacres Friday, killing six people in northwestern Colombia. U.N. human rights monitors said the nation's violence has reached new and more "alarming" heights. Friday's killings occurred in Santa Barbara in Antioquia province. Police gave no details. In a statement Thursday, U.N.

Suspected far-right paramilitaries killed 11 people in northwestern Colombia in the first massacre of the new year in the conflict-torn nation, police said. Police in Bogota, the capital, said the victims were shot dead in Wednesday's attack in a rural area near the town of Yolombo in Antioquia state, which is the scene of frequent battles between paramilitaries and leftist guerrillas for territorial control.

A suspected right-wing squad killed at least 11 people in a predawn attack on Villanueva, a town in Colombia's northernmost Guajira province. Police spokesmen said the attackers, about 40 gunmen in combat fatigues, dragged the 11 victims, including two boys, out of their homes and shot them execution-style in the street. The killings were the second since last week involving suspected right-wing paramilitary groups.

Gunmen killed at least 17 people in two separate massacres, one of which officials attributed to right-wing paramilitary militias. The killings come three days before President Clinton is to visit Colombia. In one attack, gunmen executed 10 residents of two neighborhoods in the Caribbean coastal town of Cienaga, police said. Meanwhile, suspected rightist gunmen raided two barrios outside the Pacific port of Buenaventura, killing seven people.

Suspected paramilitary gunmen executed 21 unarmed residents of a small town in an oil- and cocaine-producing region near the Venezuelan border Thursday, officials said. The shootings by the men, most in camouflage uniforms, occurred in two poor barrios of Tibu, said Ruben Sanchez, the local delegate of the federal human rights ombudsman's office. Police confirmed his account.

Masked gunmen fired indiscriminately on people at a bus terminal in Medellin, killing at least 16 and wounding four. In another attack outside the city, four people died when gunmen raided a ranch before dawn. Police suspect the massacre at the bus terminal was carried out by a criminal gang that is feuding with urban militias linked to leftist guerrillas.

In the first such verdict against a top Colombian officer in a human rights case, a former army general has been convicted of failing to defend a town during a 1997 killing spree by a right-wing paramilitary death squad. A military tribunal sentenced Gen. Jaime Humberto Uscategui late Monday to a 40-month term in the massacre of at least 22 people in the southern town of Mapiripan.

Suspected right-wing paramilitary gunmen continued a wave of massacres Friday, killing six people in northwestern Colombia. U.N. human rights monitors said the nation's violence has reached new and more "alarming" heights. Friday's killings occurred in Santa Barbara in Antioquia province. Police gave no details. In a statement Thursday, U.N.

Suspected far-right paramilitaries killed 11 people in northwestern Colombia in the first massacre of the new year in the conflict-torn nation, police said. Police in Bogota, the capital, said the victims were shot dead in Wednesday's attack in a rural area near the town of Yolombo in Antioquia state, which is the scene of frequent battles between paramilitaries and leftist guerrillas for territorial control.

A military criminal tribunal has cleared 17 of the 31 Colombian soldiers linked to an army ambush of a school group in which six children were shot dead, authorities said Thursday. "There is technical evidence to prove they did not fire their weapons and that they were in a place from which it was impossible to shoot at the children," an armed forces spokesman said. The 14 other soldiers remain under investigation.

Gunmen killed at least 17 people in two separate massacres, one of which officials attributed to right-wing paramilitary militias. The killings come three days before President Clinton is to visit Colombia. In one attack, gunmen executed 10 residents of two neighborhoods in the Caribbean coastal town of Cienaga, police said. Meanwhile, suspected rightist gunmen raided two barrios outside the Pacific port of Buenaventura, killing seven people.

Suspected paramilitary gunmen executed 21 unarmed residents of a small town in an oil- and cocaine-producing region near the Venezuelan border Thursday, officials said. The shootings by the men, most in camouflage uniforms, occurred in two poor barrios of Tibu, said Ruben Sanchez, the local delegate of the federal human rights ombudsman's office. Police confirmed his account.

President Ernesto Samper has startled the military and won praise from human rights groups by personally admitting the state's guilt in one of the most brutal episodes in Colombian history--the mutilation and slaughter of 107 peasants. In an emotional ceremony Tuesday at the presidential palace to which families of the victims were invited, Samper accepted the state's responsibility for the massacres in the southwestern town of Trujillo between 1988 and 1990.

Rebels opened fire Wednesday on a bus carrying banana workers, killing at least 24 in a massacre blamed on a bloody power struggle between leftist groups in northwest Colombia. Army troops, leftist rebels, right-wing paramilitary squads and bandits all vie for influence in Uraba, a region near the Caribbean and the border with Panama. At least 35 people were killed in two massacres last month.

President Andres Pastrana on Thursday dismissed an army general accused of failing to prevent the massacre of 36 villagers by rightist militiamen, who had warned for months that they would carry out the killings. With paramilitary violence rising, U.S. officials and leftist rebels have been demanding that Pastrana clamp down on military officers who have supported the right-wing militias. Washington is weighing a major increase in police and military aid to Colombia, but U.S.

A suspected right-wing squad killed at least 11 people in a predawn attack on Villanueva, a town in Colombia's northernmost Guajira province. Police spokesmen said the attackers, about 40 gunmen in combat fatigues, dragged the 11 victims, including two boys, out of their homes and shot them execution-style in the street. The killings were the second since last week involving suspected right-wing paramilitary groups.