THIS IS YOUR WAR ON DRUGS

From an interview with a soldier in the Colombian military published in
the January/February 2000 issue of the Index on Censorship. Last July, at
President Clinton's behest, Congress authorized a $ 1.3 billion aid package
for the Colombian government that includes military equipment, intelligence
resources, and hundreds of U.S. military advisers.

What are your memories of your first days in the army?

We were trained in counter-guerrilla tactics. They told us that anyone
involved in human rights was a guerrilla. Anyone who was a peasant was also
a guerrilla as far as we were concerned. They trained us to kill. Whenever
you went into operations, you took a rifle de cuadre.

What's that?

An extra rifle. If there were operations but no action, you killed a
peasant and you gave them the rifle and dressed them in camouflage.
Whenever there was a military target and you didn't kill anyone, you had to
take back a body. That's how we did it.

Whom did you kill?

Whomever. When there was fighting we were there in support, and when it was
all over we would stay in the mountains as infiltrators or ambushers. The
last time we killed an old man, a hunchback. We were after a guerrilla
commander. We couldn't find him, so we grabbed an old man who had the same
surname on his ID card. My lieutenant told me to kill him if I had the
guts. I said: "If I have to, I have to." But he gave the order to another
soldier.

And reported that he had been killed in combat?

Of course. You set up simulated crossfire in case there is an
investigation. You set off an alarm, four or five shots from each soldier.
It's a sham, but the lieutenant gets a promotion.

Promotion depends on the number of bodies you bring back?

Yes. My first experience of the way things worked was when we were in a
joint operation with the Tayrona battalion, which I think is from the
Magdalena. There had been fighting in the Sierra Nevada, fierce, bloody
combat with the guerrillas. The battalion had blocked the guerrillas'
supply routes, working with the paramilitaries. The guerrillas were
starting to die. They were really hungry and worn down. We went up when the
fighting was over, then retreated, and the paramilitaries went in with the
battalion. They massacred the peasants.

The army knows who the paramilitaries are?

Of course. They go on maneuvers with the battalion. They borrow the
battalion's cars to travel to other regions.

Is there a paramilitary base in the Magdalena?

Lucas Gnecco, the governor of Cesar, has his base there. Everything in
Cesar is run by Gnecco. He finances the paramilitaries, gets uniforms for
the battalion, and distributes other stuff to them.

How do you know this?

I got friendly with a first lieutenant who had a lot of information. Gnecco
was involved in the death of a human-rights journalist who had information
that he was financing the paramilitaries in Valledupar. I overheard two
colonels in the battalion talking about it.

One day two paramilitaries arrived and took a couple of pistols that had
belonged to the guerrilla we'd captured. They needed guns that couldn't be
traced because there was an investigation going on. They stayed in the
battalion for seven days, training us. We were always chatting with them,
asking them what they had done. They offered us money and said that as soon
as we left the military we could join them.

How much does a paramilitary earn?

At the start they earn about 340,000 pesos (around $ 160). A really
fearless killer will get promoted to leader, and his wages will go up. When
the paramilitaries get a tip-off, they travel together in the battalion's
transport, the army on one side, them on the other.

The paramilitary I was talking to asked why I didn't work with them. He
knew that I was from the local barrios and that I would know where the
guerrilla commanders and collaborators lived. He said: "Why don't you earn
some good money, you idiot?"

And how does the paramilitaries' training continue?

I don't know where they do their training; the information is closely
guarded. They always take reservists because then they are already trained.
They say that the first thing you have to do when you get there is kill
someone in cold blood. It brainwashes you. It was the paramilitaries who
taught us how to torture people.

What did they tell you?

To torture someone you tie them up and give them electric shocks on the
tongue to make them talk. When they refuse to talk, you use those big long
needles [he indicates the size of his index finger] and stab the needles
through their nails. Then you strip them and make them sit on a block of
ice. And when they still won't give you information, you castrate them and
pour acid over them so that they end up completely disfigured. The
paramilitaries have always done it. Recently, in Cesar, they burned a whole
family with acid. I was in the battalion there, and a soldier told me about
it. He said the son was a guerrilla and that the paramilitaries were
furious with him because he had killed one of their commanders. So they
went into the house and dragged out the whole family. There were three
young kids, and they threw acid on all of them. Acid that turns a person
black.

Who are the informers?

They are always volunteers. If you have a good tip-off you go to the
battalion, and they give you camouflage and let you direct the operation.
If it comes off, you get paid. The first time, the paramilitaries pay you
up to 700,000 pesos ($ 326). But after two months they reduce the money to
about 300,000. Then you can't leave, because you're implicated.

How do they talk about peasants? How do they describe them?

Union members, guerrillas, human-rights workers, they are all the same for
the paramilitaries. They're seen as collaborators and targets.

Are there a lot of retired military personnel in the paramilitaries?

Almost all of the leaders are retired lieutenants or sergeants, officers.
That's why they are so well trained. It's a real advantage to have someone
who knows about combat and patrols.

What do you know about a massacre being planned for Barranca?

There are soldiers who have joined, volunteers; they're planning to return
to Barranca, to infiltrate the area. They'll work with the guerrillas for a
bit and get to know what's going on so that they can hit them hard. But it
will be the paramilitaries who do that. They won't involve the army.

Is there much infiltration?

Yes, whoever wants to can join the guerrillas, and it's a disaster. The
paramilitaries' objective is guerrilla collaborators. But it's not the
collaborators they'll kill, it's the ordinary people at home.

Do the officers think they are losing or winning the war?

As an army, they've lost. They themselves say so. They realize that the
guerrillas are really on the rise and they are effectively losing the war.
There have been a lot of setbacks. Your average military man is only
interested in earning a wage, nothing else. They don't feel like they used
to, that they were the army, that they loved their country.

When do you think the massacres are going to happen, the ones they're
planning?

They're planned for the end of December. But we're talking about a huge
massacre, one that will be felt all over the country. The one that they're
going to commit in Barranca, adding it all up, is going to hit around a
hundred people--they're going to go into all the barrios.

Are the people prepared? Do they know?

No, they know nothing. If I were to tell anyone, the paramilitaries would
soon send someone for me.

What age are most of the paramilitaries?

Mostly young--mainly reservists. The leaders are older. They're
bloodthirsty. The counter-guerrilla paramilitaries carry chain saws with
them, about this size [he indicates his forearm], for cutting people up.
Any paramilitary that goes on operations takes one with him. They have mass
graves over in Barranca.

What is life like for young people in the barrios?

For young people here it's all about being in the guerrillas, carrying a
gun, intimidating civilians. They want to feel good. But when they have to
fight they can't. They look down on me because I've just left. I won't do
anyone any favors, won't hang around with them. Why would I want to get
involved in that stuff? If I decide to join the guerrillas, I'll take my
gun and go to the mountains. But not here, because here they only kill
innocent people.