Colombia declares state of emergency
( 2002-08-13 09:14 ) (7 )

Keeping his election pledge to beef up Colombia's war effort, President Alvaro Uribe declared a 90-day state of emergency on Monday and said he will make the wealthy pay an assets tax to fight the leftist rebels and far-right militias who control much of the country.

The emergency, which comes less than a week after suspected FARC guerrillas tried to shell Uribe's presidential inauguration and killed 20 people, will also allow the right-winger to pass laws by decree and restrict civil rights, although the government said it will not do this for now.

"Normal legal instruments aren't enough to respond to the terrorists who want to bring the country to its knees and we're going to use all the tools we have available," Interior Minister Fernando Londono told local radio.

Known as a "state of domestic commotion," the emergency was also a response to the FARC's death-threat campaign against the country's mayors and local officials, Londono said.

Using its powers under the state of emergency, which is valid for 90 days but can be extended, the government intends to raise US$780 million by making individuals and companies pay a 1.2 percent tax on assets of over US$60,000.

Colombia's wealthier minority, many of whom manage to enjoy urban luxury as a war fought mainly by the poor rages in the countryside, will now have to provide the money for two new elite mobile brigades with 3,000 troops, 10,000 additional police officers and a network of 100,000 civilian "police auxiliaries." The tax will also pay special prosecutors, judges and human rights officials.

Key aid donor the United States had pressured Bogota to boost its defense spending, even though Colombia's slow-growing economy already labors under a heavy debt burden.

Uribe, who enjoys a 77-percent popularity rating, was elected in May on a wave of popular impatience with former President Andres Pastrana's attempts to negotiate peace with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia -- a 17,000-strong Marxist guerrilla group known as FARC.

The talks collapsed in February, after three years.

Now Uribe pledges to get tough with the leftist rebels and far-right paramilitary outlaws fighting a 38-year-old war which claims thousands of lives a year and has turned huge stretches of Colombia into lawless fiefdoms disputed by rival warlords.

Uribe, a keen proponent of U.S. military aid directed at the cocaine trade financing the illegal armies, says he will boost military spending by a third and set up a million-strong network of civilian informers to tip off the security forces.

'ALL RIGHTS' COULD BE RESTRICTED

For the moment, Londono said, the government would not use emergency powers to restrict civil rights. If it so chose, the government could limit personal movement, impose restrictions on the media, search homes without a warrant and arrest people on suspicion without proof that they have committed a crime.

But in an interview published on Sunday by newspaper El Espectador, Londono indicated the authorities could eventually use all of their new powers. When asked what rights could be restricted under a state of emergency, he replied:

"All of them. Except the basis of human rights or international human rights law, such as the right to life, the right to personal dignity, freedom of belief and expression."

Uribe insists all Colombians must unite if they are to defeat rebels, paramilitaries and drug lords. Human rights groups fear this could blur the distinction between civilians and combatants, leading armed groups to target ordinary people. They say the informer network could lead to abuses.

Despite massive U.S. aid -- Washington has donated over $1.5 billion for the war on drugs -- Colombia's military is under-equipped to contain the powerful outlaw bands.

Armed troops are already a common sight on Colombian streets, but many people still feel helpless when confronted by attacks such as last Wednesday's mortar bombardment. Apparently aimed at Uribe's swearing-in ceremony, it instead killed mainly poor people, including children and homeless drug addicts.

RICH HAVE GOT TO PAY UP

Bogota construction worker Carlos Garcia, 37, told Reuters he supported the state of emergency and the new tax.

"The rich have got to pay up because they've got the cash. It's us poor people who suffer the most in this war," he said.

Even one of Colombia's most prominent left-wing politicians, former socialist presidential candidate Luis Eduardo Garzon, was guardedly in favor of the moves.

"Unfortunately the FARC are justifying this sort of measure. Any government has got the right to defend itself," he told daily El Tiempo. But he added: "We have to look closely at the measures and see if they are going to pursue the FARC, or go after people they suspect support them. That's my worry."

Presidents Cesar Gaviria and Ernesto Samper decreed emergencies in the 1990s. The courts twice overturned them, but the government says there is no ground for doing so this time.

After years of the more lackadaisical Pastrana style, Colombians were electrified by Uribe's fighting talk the day after the FARC bombarded his inauguration.

"They're going to have to kill all of us," he said.