US embassy cable - 04BOGOTA112

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BOGOTA 000112 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/05/2014 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, PTER, PHUM, PINR, PINS, MCAP, ECON, SNAR, SOCI, CO 
SUBJECT: NOTES FROM THE FIELD: VALLEDUPAR AND CESAR 
DEPARTMENT 
 
REF: BOGOTA 00097 
 
Classified By: Ambassador William B. Wood for reasons 1.5 (b) 
and (d). 
 
------- 
Summary 
------- 
 
1. (C) Politics and economics in the northern department of 
Cesar are heavily influenced by the interests of a small 
number of prominent families and the depredations of illegal 
armed groups.  Despite the distractions posed by feuds within 
the local aristocracy and the active presence of the FARC, 
ELN, and AUC, the GOC has improved the security situation in 
the department significantly since President Alvaro Uribe 
took office in August 2002.  All of the department's 
municipalities now have a permanent police presence, and 
kidnappings on departmental highways -- which severely 
discouraged travel and commerce -- have been dramatically 
reduced.  The porous border with Venezuela, however, 
continues to be a security problem, and the local economy has 
yet to recover from the downturn of the late 1990s.  End 
Summary. 
 
---------- 
Background 
---------- 
 
2. (U) On December 11-13, Embassy officials visited 
Valledupar, capital of the northern department of Cesar. 
Situated near the southern foothills of the Sierra Nevada de 
Santa Marta mountains and 35 miles west of the rugged 
Venezuelan border, Valledupar is the department's largest 
city, with approximately 400,000 inhabitants.  The 
department's principal industries are coal mining, cotton 
farming, and cattle ranching, although the internal armed 
conflict has adversely affected all these industries. 
According to the Social Solidarity Network (RSS), the GOC's 
displaced persons service agency, during 2000-2002, more 
persons were forcibly displaced in Cesar than in any other 
department.  In 2003, 11 percent of all kidnappings in 
Colombia took place in Cesar.  Approximately 6,000 military 
and 2,000 police are stationed in the department. 
 
----------- 
Family Ties 
----------- 
 
3. (C) Cesar is dominated by a handful of powerful families, 
among them the Araujos, Gneccos, Castros, and Pupos.  Not 
only are they major power brokers in Cesar, but they also 
wield significant influence in Bogota.  According to 
Lieutenant Colonel Hernan Mejia (protect), commander of the 
Colombian Army's Second Artillery Battalion, the Araujos and 
Gneccos have each reached accommodations with different 
illegal armed groups ) the Araujos with the United 
Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), and the Gneccos with 
the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). 
 
4. (C) The Araujo family has produced ten departmental 
governors, including current Governor Hernando Molina Araujo. 
 Molina's mother, the late Consuelo Araujo Noguera, 
affectionately known throughout Colombia as "La Cacica," was 
GOC Minister of Culture when she was kidnapped and murdered 
by the FARC in September 2001.  His cousin Maria Consuelo 
Araujo is the current Minister of Culture. 
 
5. (C) The Gnecco family has a member serving on the Supreme 
Court.  One family member was removed from the governorship 
for corruption.  Additional family members have held mayoral 
and other local government posts in surrounding departments. 
Family icon Hugo Gnecco was accused of fiscal improprieties 
as mayor of Santa Marta, Magdalena department, and was 
suspended in February 2003.  The public accusations were made 
by Inspector General Maya, of the Araujo family, which raised 
suspicions that the charges were politically motivated. 
 
------------------------------------- 
The Influence of Illegal Armed Groups 
------------------------------------- 
 
6. (C) The tenor of local and departmental politics is 
strongly influenced by illegal armed groups. 
-- The FARC kidnapped Elias Guillermo Ochoa in 1998, in 
between his two stints as mayor. Ochoa's second term 
concluded in December 2003.  Of seven brothers in his 
immediate family, four have been kidnapped by an illegal 
armed group.  One brother was kidnapped twice. 
 
-- Recently inaugurated Governor Hernando Molina ran 
uncontested in the October departmental election.  Other 
viable candidates dropped out of the race, reportedly under 
pressure by the AUC.  Nearly half of the votes were blank 
ballots, in protest. 
 
-- New Valledupar mayor, Ciro Arturo Pupo, is a cousin of 
prominent AUC paramilitary leader Rodrigo Tovar Pupo.  Tovar 
operates near the town of Becerril, 50 miles south of 
Valledupar.  He reports directly to AUC military commander 
Salvatore Mancuso.  Mayor Pupo (strictly protect) told 
poloffs that although he and his cousin are not on good 
terms, their family ties guarantee him "unsolicited" 
protection.  Other sources confirmed strained relations 
between Ciro Pupo and Rodrigo Tovar. 
 
7. (C) Colombia's three principal illegal armed groups -- the 
FARC, the AUC, and the National Liberation Army (ELN) -- have 
a strong presence in Cesar department.  FARC fronts operate 
along the Venezuelan border and in parts of the Sierra Nevada 
de Santa Marta mountains.  The ELN is also present in the 
Sierra Nevadas, as evidenced by its kidnapping of eight 
foreign tourists on the range's north slope in September 
(reftel).  The AUC is the primary terrorist organization 
operating on the department's central and southern plains, 
where cattle ranching and coal mining are the principal 
economic engines.  Most government officials poloffs spoke 
with said the paramilitaries now pose the greatest threat to 
the department. 
 
8. (C) According to local officials, Cesar does not have a 
significant drug trafficking economy.  Consequently, locally 
based illegal armed groups are relatively poor and rely 
heavily on kidnapping and extortion for resources.  Because 
there are few coca and poppy fields to protect, illegal armed 
groups lay fewer improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in Cesar 
than they do in other departments. 
 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
The Porous Venezuelan Border: A Security Threat 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
9. (C) Military and police officials expressed concern about 
the FARC's exploitation of the mountainous Venezuelan border 
and its alleged use of permanent encampments in Venezuela. 
Former governor Guillermo Castro, who left office in December 
2003, asserted that Venezuelan officials visit these FARC 
camps on a regular basis.  Local representatives of the 
Administrative Department of Security (DAS), Colombia's 
FBI/INS-equivalent, described their cooperation with their 
Venezuelan counterparts as limited, but generally positive. 
 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
Security Improving, but the Economy Lags Behind 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
10. (C) Before the election of President Alvaro Uribe, high 
numbers of kidnappings, murders, and extortion attempts 
discouraged residents from using the department's highways 
and led many to abandon their farms and country homes for the 
relative safety of the cities.  According to local 
politicians and law enforcement officials, however, security 
in the department has improved dramatically over the past 
year, encouraging intercity travel and the return of property 
owners to rural areas. 
 
11. (C) All municipalities in Cesar now have a police force, 
and three 150-man "Carabinero", or rural mounted police, 
squadrons operate in the department.  Additional police have 
been assigned exclusively to patrolling the principal highway 
linking Valledupar with Santa Marta, on the Caribbean coast. 
Kidnappings along the highway have decreased significantly 
over the past year, a result of a larger police presence and 
better coordination between the police and the military. 
 
12. (SBU) Cesar's economy has suffered from the department's 
previously tenuous security situation.  Valledupar's mayor 
estimated unemployment in the city to be about forty percent, 
which is inflated by large numbers of displaced persons. 
With security improving, local officials expressed optimism 
about the economy, beginning with a revitalization of the 
cotton industry. 
WOOD