IRAN WITHDRAW FROM SUSPICIOUS MEAT PROJECT IN COLOMBIA
By Safa Haeri
LONDON-BOGOTA FIRST OF JANUARY 2000 (IPS) The Iranian embassy in Bogota announced that the Islamic Republic has decided to suspend construction of a 3 millions US Dollars, 22 millions tons per year meat-packing plant and slaughterhouse in Colombia's cocaine producing jungle controlled by leftist rebels.
The Surprise announcement came after Iran Press Service had revealed, earlier in December, that the factory the Iranians wanted to create was in fact a cover for the Iranian Information (Intelligence) Ministry and the Revolutionary Guards to give assistance to the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces known as FARC, a Marxist group that fights both the central government of Colombia and cash in the lucrative cocaine trade market.
According to the Spain's EFE press agency, the embassy had blamed the Iranian decision to abandon the project on "incorrect interpretations of some authorities of the Government of Colombia" which "have created conditions in which there could not be any guarantees for the security of the investment."
Contacted by IPS, the Iranian Embassy in Bogota would not be more specific nor give more details, but it was clear that the announcement was a direct reference to a statement by the Colombian Defense Minister Luis Fernando Ramirez alleging that Iranian military advisers were part of the group installing the slaughterhouse.
According to Mr. Ramirez, the Iranians engineers and experts who had come to Colombia to supervise the construction of the meat-packing and slaughterhouse were in fact military experts connected with the leftist and anti-U.S. FARC which controls the jungle area.
The Defence Minister made the accusations after the last Iranian team that arrived in Bogota refused their luggage to be inspected, rising the suspicion of the Airport Custom authorities, particularly because not only the area where the Iranians had considered for the factory was in a jungle area controlled by the FARC, but also not suitable for meat production.
Hamid Reza Asefi, the senior spokesman if the Iranian Foreign Ministry had immediately dismissed Mr. Ramirez's comments, saying the project was discussed and concluded by a private Iranian firm having nothing to do with the government.
But Iranian Ambassador to Colombia, Hussein Sheikh Zeineddin had revealed that area was chosen because Tehran wanted to contribute to the Colombian peace process and facilitate negotiations between the FARC and the Colombian authorities.
He did not explain why the Islamic Republic of Iran, a central Asian nation that has no connection with Latin America wanted to mediate between a Marxist revolutionary group and the Colombian government.
When the first Iranian delegation visited the area in June 1999 and signed an agreement with the local authorities four months latter on 21 October, Jorge Visbal, head of the Colombian National Cattlemen's Association told the weekly "Semana" that building such a high-capacity facility in an area that cannot fulfill export requirements "does not make sense", adding that most of Colombia's beef production occurs on the other side of the Andes Mountains.
Visbal also wondered why there was such a rush to conclude an agreement, when other negotiations last years to fulfil.
Sources contacted by IPS said considering the fact that the site Iran wanted to build the factory is in the centre of a cocaine production region controlled by FARC that in turn has extensive ties to narcotics traffickers, the Iranians might have been looking to benefit from narcotics trade while giving a hand to FARC to better fight the Americans by bringing closer the Colombian terrorist group with the Tehran-backed,Shi'a-based Hezbollah organisation that operates from one of the world's largest smuggled goods bazaar situated in the triangle made by Ciudad del Este, Paraguay, Foz de Yguazu, Brazil, and Puerto Yguazu, Argentina. ENDS IRAN COLOMBIA 1100