New Colombia President Vows Social Reforms to Restore Justice, Order

President Virgilio Barco Vargas assumed personal responsibility Thursday for restoring justice and order in Colombia through social reforms and an effective judiciary.

In an inaugural address launching his four-year term, Barco, the Liberal Party leader, outlined a program to end guerrilla violence, crime and social insecurity through a war on poverty.

“I will create an organism directly under my presidency that will direct and coordinate all the political, social and economic measures designed to rehabilitate the regions torn by violence and reincorporate those who chose the road of armed subversion,” Barco said.

In a country where drug traffickers have taken credit for killing a minister of justice, a Supreme Court justice, and 27 lesser judges in the last two years, Barco said that “civilized coexistence” requires restoration of a strong, independent judiciary.

Protection for Judges

“My government will surround the judges with dignity, protection and the means to do their job efficiently,” he said.

Addressing a joint session of Congress and visiting foreign dignitaries, including many heads of state and Secretary of State George P. Shultz, Barco said that Colombia, the world’s largest cocaine exporter, “would continue to collaborate with the community of nations to save our civilization from drugs’ perverse effects.”

Barco, 65, a civil engineer educated in the United States, reached the presidency after 40 years of political activity and experience as an international economist and minister of agriculture, public works and mayor of Bogota.

His reforms include land distribution and credit to landless peasants, urban land expropriation for low-cost housing in city slums and an anti-poverty program of public spending for health, nutrition, education and housing for the poorest 40%.

“My authority will not serve as the guardian for shocking inequalities nor unjustifiable advantages that now exist,” Barco said.

“Those who now enjoy privileges will not save what they have by walling themselves off from their fellow citizens, or by obstructing changes and necessary reforms,” said the new president, who is himself from a wealthy family.

This country of 28 million people, the fourth largest in Latin America, has been a stable democracy for 30 years through a pact between the two traditional parties, Liberals and Conservatives.

But this pact has generated political revolt by radical movements excluded from government by the two-party system. Economic growth and social order have been weakened increasingly by guerrilla movements, terrorism, drug trafficking and other crimes.

President Belisario Betancur, a Conservative, who handed over the leadership to Barco, failed in his attempts to achieve “national pacification” through an offer of amnesty and political concessions to guerrillas.

Betancur delegated responsibility for negotiations with the four major guerrilla groups to a “National Peace Commission” formed by independent lawyers, intellectuals, Roman Catholic bishops and members of the Communist Party.

This approach did not involve Betancur or his ministers directly in the negotiations, which weakened the talks. Also, Betancur failed to obtain congressional support for promises made by the negotiators.

Barco was elected with more than 4 million votes in May, running up the largest majority ever obtained in a presidential election. In March, he led the Liberal Party to a clear majority in congressional elections.

With this backing, Barco said he would form a Liberal Party government, without making concessions in his reform program or Cabinet to the Conservatives.

With his popular support and majority in Congress, Barco expects to obtain approval for legislation needed to implement his social programs. He is planning to ask for an emergency law that will provide funds for a jobs program.

Barco took office as Colombia’s 91st president under extraordinary security measures reflecting fears of attack by left-wing extremists.

According to Colombian army spokesmen, a terrorist plan to stage attacks here and in Cali, a major city in southern Colombia, was discovered, and scores of suspected guerrillas have been arrested.

That did not prevent an assault near here by the M-19 guerrilla organization, which attacked a police station Wednesday at Nemocon, a town 30 miles away, killing four. The police chief was killed in the initial attack, and three members of the bomb squad died while trying to deactivate a device left by the guerrillas.

Resistance to Continue

An anonymous caller phoned a local news agency and said the Nemocon attack was one of a series of actions planned for the Barco inauguration to show foreign delegations that armed resistance to the Colombian political system will continue.

Shultz moved around the city in a bulletproof car, guarded by dozens of security agents, as he went from the airport to a meeting with Barco and later to the U.S. Embassy and the ambassador’s residence for meetings with Central American presidents.

The Congress building where the swearing-in ceremonies took place is across the plaza from the Supreme Court building, where more than 100 people, including 12 justices, died last November during an M-19 guerrilla takeover followed by an army assault on the rebels.

There were signs that Barco will soon face threats of a breakdown in the cease-fire that Betancur negotiated with the largest of Colombia’s four guerrilla groups, the Communist Party’s Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces.

Promise to Guerrillas

Barco has promised the guerrilla groups that his government will carry out social reforms, such as land distribution to peasants, including guerrillas. But he has said he will not accept negotiations on specific guerrilla demands until they turn over their arms to authorities.

Those who refuse will be treated as outlaws, Barco said. “My government’s first obligation is to protect the lives, honor and property of Colombia’s citizens,” he said.

One of Barco’s first important appointments was his minister of defense. He named Gen. Rafael Samudio Molina, who has been commander of the army, and therefore responsible for recent successful skirmishes with M-19 guerrillas in which two of the organization’s top military leaders were killed.