Source: Chicago Tribune (IL) 
Section: sec. 1
Contact:  
Website: http://www.chicago.tribune.com/ 
Pubdate: 16 May 1998

COLOMBIAN GENERAL DENIES ABUSES AS U.S. CANCELS VISA

BOGOTA, Colombia -- The United States has revoked the visa of a senior 
Colombian general who human-rights groups say has a lengthy record of 
backing paramilitary forces involved in death squad activity.

Gen. Ivan Ramirez was commander from 1995-97 of the army's First 
Division, which operates in a northern region where landowner-backed 
paramilitary forces are known for killing scores of alleged guerrilla 
sympathizers, sometimes with the army's close cooperation.

Ramirez, now the army's inspector-general, denied responsibility 
Friday for any human-rights abuses and said the action taken against 
him by the State Department would demoralize Colombia's soldiers.

"The only thing I've done is to combat violence and terrorists for 36 
years," Ramirez told RCN radio, saying his conscience was clear. "I 
don't have any investigations pending against me."

Ramirez also was the army's intelligence chief between 1992-95 and 
oversaw the 20th Intelligence Brigade, which the United States has 
accused of sponsoring death squads.

U.S. Embassy officials would not publicly confirm the revocation of 
Ramirez's visa.

The action comes as U.S. policymakers weigh whether to provide 
advanced weaponry, training or other counterinsurgency assistance to 
Colombia's beleaguered military, which recently suffered a string of 
major defeats by leftist rebels.

It apparently was the first time the United States has revoked the 
visa of a Colombian military official in connection with human-rights 
abuses.

The State Department stripped President Ernesto Samper and more than a 
dozen other Colombian politicians of their U.S. visas in 1996 for 
allegedly accepting money and favors from drug cartels.

More than 250 Colombians have been stripped of U.S. visas over the 
last two years.

With presidential elections May 31, Colombia is in the midst of a 
mounting dirty war of political assassinations.

Three prominent left-leaning human-rights activists have been killed 
since late February and a former defense minister, Fernando 
Landazabal, was assassinated Tuesday in what many believe was rebel 
retaliation.

A State Department report says 7.5 percent of all politically 
motivated extrajudicial killings during the first nine months of 1997 
were committed by government forces, with the army responsible for 
many. Paramilitary groups committed more than two-thirds of the 
political murders, human-rights groups say.

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