Colombian Governor Arrested on Murder and Racketeering Charges

By Ellis Cortez
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

BOGOTA, Colombia – The governor of the northern province of La Guajira, Juan Francisco ‘Kiko’ Gomez, was arrested by Colombian officials for his involvement in three murders and for collaboration with right-wing paramilitaries.

Juan Francisco Gómez
Juan Gomez will have a hearing on October 30. (Photo Courtesy of El Tiempo)

Colombia’s Deputy Attorney General, Jorge Fernando Perdomo, said that Gomez was linked to the 1997 assassination of a Barrancas city councilman, Luis Lopez Peralta, and the killings in 2000 of Luis Alejandro Rodriguez Frias and Rosa Mercedes Cabrera Alfaro.

Gomez is also accused of criminal involvement with paramilitary groups in La Guajira, on Colombia’s border with Venezuela. The charges include links with Rodrigo Tovar, commander of the right-wing United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC), and Salvatore Mancuso. Tovar and Mancuso were extradited to the United States on drug trafficking charges in 2008.

The governor’s supporters surrounded Gomez’s house to try to prevent his arrest when police came for him during a festival in his home town of Barrancas, in north-eastern Colombia. He was later removed from the property in an ambulance, with undisclosed injuries and was under treatment at a clinic.

Earlier this week Kiko Gomez was charged with five counts of corruption, in a separate case. Gomez, who served as mayor of Barrancas from 1995 to 1997 and again from 2001 to 2003, was elected governor of La Guajira in 2011.

Colombia’s paramilitaries were created in the 1980s by drug traffickers and ranchers to counter leftist rebel kidnapping and extortion. However, many of the militias degenerated into death squads and carried out massacres of peasants suspected of having rebel sympathies. They also killed journalists and union members accused of favoring the leftist insurgents.

The AUC, accused of committing numerous human rights violations, demobilized during the administration of former Colombian President, Alvaro Uribe. During the demobilization, thousands of paramilitaries gave testimony and handed in their weapons in exchange for benefits, including immunity from prosecution in some cases.

More than one hundred national, regional and local politicians were investigated for links with the AUC and other paramilitaries as part of scandal known as the “parapolitics,” Dozens of those accused have been convicted.

For more information please see:

ABC News – Colombia Governor Arrested, Accused of Gang Ties – 13 October 2013

The Washington Post – Colombian governor arrested on racketeering charges, suspected in 3 killings – 13 October 2013

BBC – Colombian governor Kiko Gomez charged with murder – 13 October 2013

El Tiempo – En ambulancia, sale capturado ‘Kiko’ Gómez, gobernador de La Guajira – 12 October 2013

Senate Shifts Negotiations From Shutdown to Debt Limit

by Michael Yoakum
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

WASHINGTON, D.C., United States –  Focus over the government stalemate shifted to the Senate Saturday, where leaders are in talks to end the nearly two week shutdown.  Word of negotiations between Senate leaders from both parties came in the wake the Senate’s rejection of a bill that would increase the government’s debt ceiling.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid spoke at a press conference regarding negotiations to end the government shutdown. (Photo courtesy of Al Jazeera)

Talks between Harry Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell  on Saturday were their first face to face meetings in four months and their first in person negotiation about the government shutdown.

“The conversations were extremely cordial but very preliminary of course – nothing conclusive, but I hope that our talking is some solace to the American people and to the world,” Reid said.

While resolving the shutdown appears a high priority for the Senate, the rare session held Sunday had one item on the agenda: resolve the debt ceiling issue before markets open on Monday.  A near party line vote on Saturday failed to pass an increase to the debt limit problem.  Conservative members of the Senate cited the lack of clear plans to cut spending as reason for voting against the bill.

“This bill would have taken the threat of default off the table and given our nation’s businesses and the economy the certainty we need,” the White House said in a statement.

In the wake of Congressional debate over the shutdown and debt ceiling, many Americans have taken notice of the role of the federal government in their daily lives.

Political leaders from both parties have taken to characterizing the nature of the shutdown in a way that highlights their differing views of the role of government.  President Obama highlighted the federal government’s role as a source of jobs for hundreds of thousand of Americans as well as a place for farmers and small business owners to obtain loans.

Conservative members of Congress have used the shutdown as a demonstration of the impact that a smaller government would have on Americans.

Marsha Blackburn, a Republican House member from Tennessee said, “People are going to realize they can live with a lot less government.”

For more information, please see:

ABC News – Shutdown Driving Debate Over Role of Government – 13 October 2013

The Economic Times – Shutdown debate moves to US Senate as debt deadline creeps up – 13 October 2013

Al Jazeera – Government shutdown: Senate takes center stage in budget debate – 12 October 2013

BBC News – US shutdown debate shifts to Senate – 12 October 2013

The Washington Post – Government shutdown debate grates on Congress members’ moods – 12 October 2013

The Extraordinary AU Summit on the ICC

By: Danielle L. Gwozdz
Impunity Watch News Reporter, Africa

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia– The African Union (AU) will convene an Extraordinary Summit on Implementation of International Jurisdiction, Justice and International Criminal Court (ICC).  This is a follow-up to the AU’s Summit in May where it criticized the ICC for “witch-hunting African leaders.”

President Mugabe chats to VP Mujuru at the Harare International Airport before his departure for Ethiopia (photo courtesy of The Herald)

A possible collective pull-out of the 34 African countries that ratified the Rome statute – the ICC founding charter – will likely emerge among the most contentious points of debate.  Zimbabwe is not party to the treaty on the strength of its deep-rooted belief in domestic legal systems.

The AU has decided to set up a contact group of the Executive Council to undertake consultations with the members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), in particular, its five permanent members, with a view to engaging with the UNSC on all concerns of the AU on its relationship with the ICC, including the deferral of the Kenyan and Sudanese cases, in order to obtain their feedback.

Some 130 African and international civil society organizations on Monday wrote a letter to African Foreign Affairs ministers, already gathered in the Ethiopian capital, urging them to restate their support to the international court in conformity with the African states’ commitment to protect and promote human rights and end impunity.

The AU has been consistent in its critical stance against the ICC since 2009, when the world court issued a warrant of arrest against Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir.

At the 2009 Summit held in Sirte Libya that year, the Assembly of Heads of State issued a Joint Declaration stating that AU member states will ignore the ICC arrest warrant and will not take any measures to transfer Bashir to The Hague.

When Bashir subsequently visited Kenya, Malawi, Chad, Ethiopia, and Nigeria he was not arrested. The AU has repeatedly reaffirmed its stance against the ICC.

After reaffirming principles deriving from national law and international customary law, by which sitting heads of state and government and other senior state officials are granted immunities during their tenure of office, the Assembly decided that “No charges shall be commenced or continued before any international court or tribunal against any serving head of state or Government or anybody acting in such capacity during his/her term of office.”

Further, the Assembly stated that “To safeguard the constitutional order, stability, and integrity of member states, no serving AU Head of State or Government or anybody acting or entitled to act in such a capacity, shall be required to appear before any international court or tribunal during their term of office.”

ICC stakeholders fear that the Extraordinary Summit will result in an en masse Africa walk out from the ICC, a threat to the future of the Court given that with 34 ratifications, Africa is the largest regional block.

There are various efforts from civil societies, the Assembly of State Parties to the ICC (ASP), the United Nations, to discourage a possible Africa withdrawal.

There is legitimate concern that Africa appears to be a target of the world’s first permanent criminal court. Withdrawing from the ICC though is not the solution because this imbalance is not the doing of the ICC. The Court’s judicial processes have been fair, impartial, and transparent.

For further information, please visit:

Africa Legal Aid – Much Ado About the Extraordinary AU Summit on the ICC – 11 October 2013
The Herald – President leaves for AU Extraordinary Summit – 11 October 2013
News Afrique Informations – African Union’s extraordinary summit Ethiopia – 11 October 2013
African Union – Extraordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – 11 October 2013
BBC News – African Union urges ICC to defer Uhuru Kenyatta case – 12 October 2013
Yahoo! UK and Ireland – AU calls for halt to ICC cases against Kenyan and Sudanese leaders – 12 October 2013