Human rights organisations in Southwest Colombia department receive paramilitary death threats yet again‏

At 1am and 8am respectively on the morning of Monday 14th June, a threat arrived by text message to the mobiles of human rights defender Cristina Castro (Committe of Solidarity with Political Prisoners, FCSPP) and indigenous leader Aida Quilcue. The message declares as military objective the following organisations: human rights NGO Nomadesc, FCSPP, Permanent Committee of Human Rights (CPDH), community organisation ECATE, and trade union central CUT Valle. The text read:

“the assembley will be a guerrilla assembley, yet again we have proved that you carry out the FARC’s ideological process death to Nomadesc, FCSPP, CPDH, ECATE, CUT, you will not be saved.x1y” (sic)

 

The message refers to the Inter-ethnic and Social Public Assembley held this week on Monday 14th and Tuesday 15th June in the town of Santander de Quilichao, Cauca department to denounce and draw attention to repeated human rights violations and violations of International Humanitarian Law committed by state forces, paramilitaries and FARC guerrillas against indigenous, afro-Colombian and campesino communities and social sectors in Valle del Cauca and Cauca departments. All of the organisations mentioned, apart from ECATE, were involved in organising the assembly, which had the participation of the UN and several international human rights organisations. The threat was reported to prosecutor’s office (fiscalia) in Popayan.

 

Antecedents since the beginning of May

• The threat arrives at a time of increased violence, intimidation and harassment of social sectors in Colombia. A report released last week by Somos Defensores showed that 102 human rights organisations were threatened during May in Colombia, with 7 human rights defenders killed. The Colombian government has remained silent on the issue.
• In the southwest region, on Sunday 23rd May, campesino leader Alexander Quintero was murdered in Santander de Quilichao, Cauca department. Alexander was President of the Alta Naya Association of Community Councils, and a key figure in the investigation into the Naya massacre, in which paramilitaries with support from state forces killed more 100 indigenous and Afro-Colombian community members in April 2001, and forcibly disappeared another 60.
• On 27th May, a man claiming to be a profesional soldier called up the police’s emergency line in the city of Tulua, stating that Berenice Celeyta, coordinator of human rights NGO Nomadesc, ECATE and FSCPP must leave the region immediately because there was an order to kill them.
• Aida Quilcue has been the victim of constant persecution since November 2008, when she led the Minga of Social and Communitarian Resistance in a heated public debate with president Alvaro Uribe about the human right situation in Colombia. Her husband Edwin Legarda was murdered by the Colombian army a month after the debate. On Friday 11th June, six soldiers were found guilty of the crime by a judge in the city of Popayan. Aida and her daughter, Mayerly Alejandra Quilcue, were subjected frequent surveillance and harassment during the court case.
• On 5th May, Berenice Celeyta and Nomadesc, CUT Valle and Sintraunicol were named in a paramilitary threat as military objectives along with several human rights defenders, trade unionists, indigenous and Afro-Colombian leaders and organisations from Valle del Cauca and Cauca departments. The threat was signed by Aguilas Nuevas Nueva Generacion (Black Eagles New Generation) paramilitary group.

We call on all of you to speak out as soon as possible, and demand a clear response from the Colombian state, including a full investigation into these acts of violence and intimidation, in order to prevent an attack against any member of the threatened organisations.

 

If you are in Britain, you can direct your correspondence to the Colombian embassy at elondres@cancilleria.gov.co.

 

 ASOCIACION PARA LA INVESTIGACION Y ACCION SOCIAL NOMADESC

PROCESO DE COMUNIDADES NEGRAS PCN
ASOCIACION DE CABILDOS INDIGENAS DEL NORTE DEL CAUCA ACIN
CONCEJO COMUNITARIO LA TOMA
COORPORACION SERVICIOS PROFESIONALES COMUNITARIOS SEMBRAR
FUNDACION COMITÉ DE SOLIDARIDAD CON PRESOS POLITICOS VALLE DEL CAUCA
RED DE HERMANDAD Y SOLIDARIDAD CON COLOMBIA REDHER
CAMPAÑA PROHIBIDO OLVIDAR
DEPARTAMENTO DE DERECHOS HUMANOS CUT-VALLE
SINTRAUNICOL
CONSEJO REGIONAL INDÍGENA DEL CAUCA
CRIC
MINGA DE RESISTENCIA SOCIAL Y COMUNITARIA

 

ALVARO URIBE VELEZ
Presidente de la República
Carrera 8 No. 7 -26 Palacio de Nariño Bogotá
Fax. 5662071
FRANCISCO SANTOS
Vicepresidente de la República
Carrera 8 No.7-57 Bogotá D.C.
fsantos@presidencia.gov.co
 General FREDY PADILLA
Ministro de la Defensa (E)
Avenida El dorado con carrera 52 CAN Bogotá D.C.
siden@mindefensa.gov.co
infprotocol@mindefensa.gov.co
mdn@cable.net.co
FABIO VALENCIA COSSIO
Ministro del Interior y de Justicia
Avenida El dorado con carrera 52 CAN Bogotá D.C.
Fax. 2221874
ministro@minjusticia.gov.co
 GUILLERMO MENDOZA DIAGO
Fiscal General de la Nación
Diagonal 22B No. 52-01 Bogotá D.C.
Fax. 570 20 00
contacto@fiscalia.gov.co
denuncie@fiscalia.gov.co
WOLMAR ANTONIO PEREZ ORTIZ
Defensor del Pueblo
Calle 55 No. 10 – 32 Bogotá D.C.
Fax. 640 04 91
defensoria@defensoria.org.co
secretaria_privada@hotmail.com
ALEJANDRO ORDÓÑEZ
Procurador General de la Nación
Cra. 5 No.15 – 80F Bogotá D.C.
anticorrupción@presidencia.gov.co
reygon@procuraduría.gov.co

 

Dirigir copia de sus comunicaciones a:
ASOCIACION NOMADESC
Accionjuridica.nomadesc@gmail.com
CAMPAÑA PROHIBIDO OLVIDAR
dhprohibidolvidar@yahoo.com
PROCESO DE COMUNIDADES NEGRAS
pcnkol.bogota@renacientes.net