COLOMBIA: HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS THREATENED

[Judi Lynn]

COLOMBIA: HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS THREATENED
Source: Amnesty International (AI)

Date: 22 Dec 2010

Paramilitaries have threatened to kill four women human rights defenders working in the departments of Cauca and Valle del Cauca in south-western Colombia. Members of other human rights organizations and a trade union were also threatened.

On 11 December Martha Lucía Giraldo, a member of the Valle del Cauca Branch of the National Movement of Victims of State Crimes (Movimiento Nacional de Víctimas de Crímenes de Estado, MOVICE), which campaigns on behalf of victims of human rights violations, received a text message on her mobile phone which read: "You are the ones that do not allow development in this country, supporting families of guerrillas and depressing them with those stupid ideas of freedom; therefore you are on our death list" (Ustedes son los que no dejan que este país progrese apoyando a familias de gerrilleros y a los que depimen con esas ideas estúpidas de libertad por lo tanto son declarados objetivos de muerte nuestros)

The message, signed by the paramilitary group Black Eagles New Generation (Águila Negras Nueva Generación), also threatened the human rights organizations Social Research and Action Association (Asociación de Investigación y la Acción Social, NOMADESC), Committee of Solidarity for Political Prisoners (Fundación Comité de Solidaridad con los Presos Políticos, FCSPP), and other human rights NGOs and Indigenous leaders.

Cristina Castro of the FCSPP also received a death threat on her phone, again signed by the Black Eagles New Generation. Similar death threats were also sent to the mobile phones of NOMADESC director Berenice Celeyta, and Ayda Quilcué, a former leader of the Cauca Indigenous Regional Council (Concejo Regional Indígena del Cauca, CRIC). One of the text messages also threatened the Colombian University Workers and Employees Trade Union (Sindicato de Trabajadores y Empleados Universitarios de Colombia, SINTRAUNICOL).

More:
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/MCOI-8CEKAK?OpenDocument