Our families are being exterminated!!

                                    
 
(Translated by Rich Henighan, a CSN volunteer translator)
 
The Great Bi-National Awa Family gathered in FCAE, UNIPA, CAMAWARI and ACIPAP
 
 
            Bi-national Awa Indigenous Territory Columbia-Ecuador, Sept. 29, 2009
 
 
The Senior Awa Authority of Ricaurte (CAMAWARI), The Federation of Awa Communities of Ecuador (FCAE), The Unity of the Awa Peoples (UNIPA), and The Association of Native Authorities of the Awa of Putamayo (ACIPAP), together we join ourselves in the Great Awa Family and make the following statement before national and international public opinion about the worsening of the grave humanitarian crisis in which we are living for the last few years.

The Facts:

1. Since the start 2009, acts of violence in the territory of the AWA people have been increasing at the hands of the armed groups which operate in Columbia. The massacre of February 4, 2009 in which thirteen people were killed, among them men , women and children, in the Tribal Reserve of Tortugana Telembi in Barbacoas presents itself. A second massacre was reported on August 22, 2009 in the Tribal Reserve of Gran Rosario, Turnaco Municipality. Here twelve persons were killed (seven children, the smallest only six months old, two women, and three men) and three others remain gravely injured and are still recuperating. Since this massacre, three more comrades were assassinated. On Sept. 13, around 9 PM in the jurisdiction of Altaquer, Barbacoas Municipality, Mr. Luis Guanga, about 45 years of age, was murdered with a knife. On Sept. 15, around 3:30 PM, in the  village of Llorente, Pianulpi gap, the 18 year old  youth Jose  Raul Guanga from the community of Boas de Imbapi in the Hojal la Turbia Reserve, municipality of Tumaco was killed by some armed men dressed as civilians, faces uncovered, who shot him seven times. At 7 PM he died in the local health outpost. Alerted by the calls of the community, the police applied first aide, but unfortunately, due to the lack of an ambulance he was not carried quickly enough to a secondary or tertiary care center. On September 16, at around 7 PM, Mr. Carlos Guillermo Pascal Nastucuas, 21 years of age, of the Kuambi Yaslambi Reserve was assassinated with a knife in the community of Altaquer, Barbacoas Municipality. Today, after so much tragedy and tears shed, we are seeing, very worried, how the murders continue. Piedra Verde Reserve, Barbacoas Municipality, September 23: Senora Mercedes Guanga was killed at 5 PM. Ten men in military garb forced her with her family (approximately fourteen people) into the house, they required money of them, money that they did not have. Then they shot Mercdes. As a result of this murder, her family has been displaced.

2. The list of victims of these killings now reaches to forty-one confirmed assassinations within the last year, events which have caused large displacements of people. With the massacre of Tortugana Telembi (UNIPA), there were approximately 400 people displaced; in Turnaco up to now, there remain 300 displaced. Between 2006 and 2009 UNIPA alone has recorded 2000 displaced persons. CAMAWARI has recorded 2000 displaced, of which 400 live in Ecuador. This number represents more or less the total Awa population in Ecuador.

In accord with universal human rights, we demand:

1. An urgent investigation, coordinated with the Awa People’s authorities, to insure that these deeds once again not remain unpunished, as continually happens in Columbia.

2. The total fulfillment of the Rights to Truth, Justice and Reparations for the victims of these deeds of violence described above.

3. The application of corrective measures insuring the protection of the Great Awa Family.

4. We reject the use of Awa territory by all the armed actors for the establishment of any military bases, influence, and occupation.



5. Finally we ratify once again our position of autonomous action apart from, and impartiality towards, all the armed actors.

6.  We require concrete actions from the international community so that all acts of violence should cease. We include massacres, disappearances, threats, or threatening signs, displacements, individual and collective rapes, physical and psychological violence—all those violent deeds resulting from the armed social conflict which the Columbian people live under.

CAMAWARI :  CABILDO MAYOR AWÁ DE RICAURTE  (The Senior Awa Authority of Ricaurte)

FCAE :FEDERACIÓN DE CENTROS AWÁ DEL ECUADOR (The Federation of Awa Communities of Ecuador)

UNIPA : UNIDAD INDÍGENA DEL PUEBLO AWÁ  (The Unity of the Awa People)

ACIPAP : ASOCIACIÓN DE CABILDOS INDÍGENAS DEL PUEBLO AWÁ DEL PUTUMAYO (The Association of Native Authorities of the Awa of Putamayo)  




Colombia Support Network
P.O. Box 1505
Madison, WI  53701-1505
phone:  (608) 257-8753
fax:  (608) 255-6621
e-mail:  csn@igc.org
http://www.colombiasupport.net

UN Special Rapporteur warns of a humanitarian crisis for indigenous peoples

( Translated by Zachary Walden Chapell, a CSN volunteer translator)
 
(SIC-ONIC) Saturday, June 25, 2009
 
Colombia, the multicultural country that “shone” with fervor in the Constitution of ‘91, today is dying. Its peoples are being extinguished physically and culturally. There is much collective responsibility for this crisis: the government, political society, the armed actors and social institutions, none can be freed from the dock of the accused.
 
Colombia, the multiethnic and multicultural country that “shone” with fervor in the Constitution of ’91, today is dying. Factors like the war, discrimination, indifference, forcible displacement, loss of territory, lack of respect for cultural differences, wicked exploitation of natural, mineral and hydrocarbon resources by multinational firms, implementation of megaprojects, social indifference and—above all—the failure to carry out their social, political, constitutional and democratic responsibilities of successive governments, have led to innumerable peoples’ being at risk of being physically and culturally extinguished.
 
This was made evident during the Hearing held in response to the visit to Colombia of the United Nations Special Relateur for Human Rights and Fundamental Liberties of the Indigenous Peoples, Dr. James Anaya, whose object is to examine the human rights situations of the indigenous peoples, and do the follow through for the recommendations of the Rapporteur’s Mandate in 2004.
 
Those recommendations that, according to what was said by 30 indigenous people who came from different areas of the country, have not been carried out; rather, systematic violations of the rights of the communities have increased.
 
The Rapporteur at that time, Dr. Rudolf Stavenhagen, sent recommendations to the government, to the armed actors, and to other actors, which would tend to improve the conditions of the lives of the indigenous people.
 
In this sense, Anaya indicated that his visit is meant to provide the routes so that these recommendations could be carried out: “This is the great challenge: how to make sure the recommendations are carried out, by means of dialog and efforts at getting closer,” he asserted on his arrival at the headquarters—Maloka—of the Indigenous Organization of Colombia [Organización Indígena de Colombia—ONIC], where the hearing was held.
 
He emphasized that the situation of the indigenous is critical in every aspect. Anaya was received with a gastronomic display of the great biodiversity of indigenous cooking: a native music band welcomed him with the most Colombian rhythms. A harmonizing ritual opened the session: the ritual harmonized the gathering and invoked the blessing of Mother Nature, which of course was received.
 
From the Mystic to the Dramatic

The panorama that indigenous people in Colombia are living through is critical given the causes that produced it: among others, the development of the armed conflict and the implementation of public policies that do not respond to the needs of the 102 peoples, as well as the application of legislative norms that are adverse to the peoples.
 
The indigenous peoples of the country denounced the very serious and shystematic violations of fundamental human rights, and territorial and collective rights by the actors who promote the armed conflict, megaprojects, lack of attention by the state and abuses by the civilian or military “authorities” charged—precisely—with the protection of the civilian population.
 
ONIC has denounced the murder of m ore than 1240 indigenous persons en the last seven years by armed actors: guerrillas, paramilitaries and the army. In just the time that has run in this year 60 indigenous persons have been murdered in the cases that have been registered and opportunely denounced by authorities and indigenous organizations of the country.
 
The situation of displacement and malnutrition are evils that attack the very right of the communities to exist; hundreds of children have died of hunger and preventable diseases, but because of the absence of the state they have not been attended in time. Meanwhile, thousands of persons have had to leave their plots, farms, and the surroundings where they have been for all or most of their lives.
 
Recruitment under threat and the criminalization of indigenous authorities and leaders threaten the ongoing survival of the indigenous communities.
 
What most attracted the attention of the different indigenous peoples was the lack of political will in the government to carry out their obligations; the areas of agreement with the government do not function, the processes of previous consultation are phonies, there has been no progress in constituting the reservations.
 
The indigenous people showed irrefutable proof of these elements, and pointed out that 65 per cent of the indigenous territories have been given in concessions to multinational firms, in the majority of cases without previous consultation.
 
But the most desolating panorama, which is worrisome and left a sense of pain and impotence is seeing how more than 30 indigenous peoples are in risk of being extinguished by the factors that we have been mentioning.
 
National and international consciousness has still not awakened, and while it sleeps we are at the gates of a genocide that is magnified by social and political indifference and shows the drama of humanity that has not been capable of being moved by the fate of its peoples who originated life.
 
In this sense and facing the fear of losing their traditions, the indigenous people let loose a cry to the world to guarantee among everyone the cultural survival of the indigenous peoples. “The government and the armed actors who promote the war cannot be the executioners of their peoples who call for peace, for justice, dignity and liberty,” concluded one indigenous person from a remote area in phrases that hit the mark.
 
Before this series of denunciations and clamor, the Rapporteur Anaya said, “I have heard your deep sadness. There are great challenges and much suffering, violations of human rights of the indigenous peoples, deaths…”
 
There is much social and collective responsibility for the crisis of our indigenous brothers: political society, the armed actors and Columbian institutions will not be able to free themselves from the dock of the accused. Perhaps it is not too late to recognize those responsibilities and take effective measures that, even if they cannot undo the errors, at least might serve to prevent a cultural and spiritual extermination of our peoples. We indigenous people shelter the hope that from this visit the Rapporteur might be able to put out recommendations that tend to improve the conditions of life of our communities and that might compensate for the great human and financial effort that every one of the indigenous peoples and organizations have had to assume to make possible this Hearing and this encounter of cultures with the Rapporteur.





Colombia Support Network
P.O. Box 1505
Madison, WI  53701-1505
phone:  (608) 257-8753
fax:  (608) 255-6621
e-mail:  csn@igc.org
http://www.colombiasupport.net

The Figures of the Debate the Colombian Government Lost

By Amy Pekol, CSN Translator
 
The Figures of the Debate the Colombian Government Lost
Jorge Enrique Robledo, Bogotá, Colombia October 30, 2009
 
The debate on the Colombian Ministry of Agriculture's new Secure Agricultural Income Program (Agro Ingreso Seguro or AIS in Spanish), demonstrated that income scarcity and insecurity prevail in the agricultural sector except for a very small group and particularly for the 45 who financed $549 million pesos for President Alvaro Uribe's campaign and received $33.497 million pesos worth of AIS resources.  The figures and analyses spelled disaster for nearly everyone in the agricultural sector and demonstrated how AIS planned for the few official resources to be distributed among a plutocratic conception and cronies.
 
65% of thos who reside in the Colombian countryside live in poor conditions and 33% live in extreme poverty.  2.14 million people were dispaced between 2002 and 2008, the period in which agriculture grew slower than the economy as a whole (3.29 vs 4.91% annual average).  The Gini index, which measures the concentration of rural land ownership, has worsened under this administration and reached 0.875, probably the worst in the world.  Nine million hectares of land with agricultural vocation remain under-utilized.  The cultivated area fell from 3.74 to 3.5 million hectars.  66% of those currently employed earn less than minimum wage.  Agricultural exports are stagnant, barely rising from 4.33 to 4.44 million tons, while imports, which totaled 6.33 million tons in 2002, have reached 9.8 million tons.  In addition, the conditions for coffee, rice, sugarcane and dairy are miserable.
 
Meanwhile, scarce government agricultural support is concentrated in a few very powerful hands.  According to Cega-Uniandes, 1% of the population maintains 71% of the discounted credits and 64% of FINAGRO's (Financial Fund for the Agricultural Sector) substitute portfolio.  In 2000, 1% of the population was taking 17.7 percent of Rural Capitalization Incentive (Incentivo a la Capitalizacion Rural or ICR in Spanish) resources.  Today this same percentage of the population takes 45% of the Guarantee Fund's support and 58.7% of all paid guarantees ($630 million on average).  On the other hand, 33% of ICR resources (89.900 million pesos in 2006) go towards the palm industry, where a barrel of automative fuel ethanol costs $142 US dollars and a barrel of gasoline costs $58 dollars.  The government is therefore forcing us to consume very expensive fuel and palm diesel.
 
Regarding AIS loans, 161 borrowers of more than $1.000 million pesos each absorb 30% of AIS resources while 79,474 loans under $20 million pesos take the same percentage.  In ICR, 1,109 beneficiaries received half of all resources, the same as 75,338, while 17 beneficiaries in 10 departments/regions gatehered 45% of all ICR resources.  They lent $29.587 million pesos to Coltabaco-Philips Morris and to five factories, they gave 5 times as much money to the department of Tolima and twice as much money to the department of Caldas while a factory in Cauca received 40% of what corresponds to that department.  In the Bolivar Department two (factories) took 73% of its allocated resources.  Also, two Corficolombiana companies controlled by banker, Luis Carlos Sarmiento Angulo, received 6.024 million pesos, a third of all resources allocated to the Meta Department.
 
Press reports about the debate recalled families who were strongly favored with gifts for irrigration and drainage.  One family received $6.895 million pesos, another received $2.973 million pesos and yet another was given $2.429 million pesos.  An additional $8.210 million pesos were divided among five others.  This shameless concentration of resources which coincides with scarce government support of agriculture is also shown in the figures: despite all the fuss about the "large quantities" of AIS money, the truth is that, according to the government, the program hardly supports a little more than a hundred thousand productive projects per year when in Colombia there are almost 2.7 million agricultural producers.  In terms of loans, less than 30 thousand loans are awared per year, which amounts to only 30 loans per municipality.
 
Agriculture policy must therefore be profoundly modified, beginning with the Secure Agricultural Income (AIS) program whose name, demagogy and political intrigue serving Andrés F. Arias must be eliminated.  The government must seriously protect and support all production--business, rural and indigenous--paying particular attention to the small and medium-sized productions which need the most support and whose progress depends upon the advancement of the Colombian economy as a whole.
 
 


Colombia Support Network
P.O. Box 1505
Madison, WI  53701-1505
phone:  (608) 257-8753
fax:  (608) 255-6621
e-mail:  csn@igc.org
http://www.colombiasupport.net

THREATENINGS AGAINST MOTHERS OF FALSE POSITIVES

( Translated by Stephanie DiBello, a CSN volunteer translator)
 
Public Denunciation: Families of young victims of extrajudicial execution harassed in Soacha
 
Friday, October 30th, 2009
 
            
The mothers of the young men who were extra-judicially executed in Soacha and the Bogotá-Cudinamarca chapter of MOVICE denounce before the national and international community the threats and harassment of those who have been recently victimized and targeted.
 
The facts:
 
LUZ MARINA BERNAL PORRAS
 
On the night of October 20th, Jhon Smith, the oldest son of Mrs. Luz Marina Bernal, found a paper in the backyard of the residence that he shares with his family with the following message: “From what we can see you did not understand the message. Live with the consequences. The little bird has returned to the nest. Just don’t forget that you were warned.”
 
On October 10th the same young man received a text message on his phone around 8:26pm that literally said, “Your girl was already warned with our visit. We hope that you’ll leave within the time period we gave to her, and if not you will live with the consequences. It’s a shame because there are two of you but this is so that next time everyone understands to keep quiet, so don’t go saying afterwards that you weren’t warned.”
 
That same night at around 11:30pm, after Jhon Smith parked his car he was approached by two men with unmarked vests that were wandering around in a green Pulsar motorcycle without plates. When they saw him one of the men asked him, “Usted es el del tiro?” The young man responded that they were mistaken.
 
When he arrived at his residence, Jhon Smith found another piece of paper in the same backyard that had a message on the back saying, “We are not playing. This is a warning, don’t forget it.”
 
When he entered his house and checked out his window he saw the two men that had approached him just minutes earlier passing by on their motorcycle. He heard one of them say, ‘Eso va tocar darles plomo a todos esos H.P…”
 
The men that drove off in the motorcycle did not have identifiable plates. Fair Leonardo Porras, son of Mrs. Luz Marina Bernal, was extra-judicially executed on January 12, 2008.
 
 
CARMENZA GOMEZ ROMERO
 
Mrs. Carnebza Gómez Romero, whose son Victor Fernando Gómez was extra-judicially executed on August 25, 2008, is denouncing the murder of her other son Jhon Nilson Gómez, who died from several gunshot wounds on February 4, 2009. This boy had miraculously survived a previous attempt on his life, in which he was pushed from a bridge 20 meters high just outside of the town of Fusagasgua. This occurred sometime between October 11 and 18, 2008.
 
Jhon Nilsón had arrived to this town after contacting two police agents from the town of Soacha, who convinced him to move to that city so that they could continue investigating those involved in the death of his brother.
 
After the first attempt the young boy continued being threatened by telephone.
 
Mrs. Carmenza remembers that on November 22, 2008 her son received an intimidating phone call where they said, “Past experience seems to be useless, what happened to your brother wasn’t enough, stop investigating…”
 
Afterwards different members of the family received similar or more intimidating calls.
 
But the threats didn’t stop there, because the assassination of her sons followed.
 
On February 24, 2009 Mrs. Carmenza received several calls, supposedly from SIJIN agents (the intelligence unit of the Metropolitan Police of Bogota), demanding that she give out personal information about her place of residence and the phone number of her house, which she refused to provide. However, one of her daughters also received calls that day and she provided the information they wanted.
 
On March 4, 2009, Mrs. Carmenza received another call where they said, “You are the woman from the television, you need accompaniment. If you need it we will give it to you for free.” The callers also identified themselves as being from the SIJIN. That same day Mrs. Carmenza’s daughter, Luz nidia Torres Gómez, received a call in which she was told, “You’ve made denunciations, what is it that you want you motherfucker, to die like your brother…”
 
 
MARÍA UBILERMA SANABRIA LOPEZ
 
On March 7, 2009 at around 10:45am two men on motorcycles approached Mrs. María Ubilerma Sanabria López near her house as she was leaving to pick up her granddaughter from school. She is the mother of Jaime Steven Valencia Sanabria, who was extra-judicially executed on February 8, 2008.
 
The two men never took off their helmets. The driver, after getting off of the motorcycle, subdued Mrs. María Ubilerma Sanabria López by grabbing her by the hair and throwing her against the wall while saying to her in a defiant tone, “you old bitch you believe you’re playing with your mother’s tits. We are not playing. Keep opening your mouth and you’ll see that you’ll end up like your son, we’re not playing you old bitch.” The men fled immediately afterwards.
 
Mrs. María Ubilerma Sanabria López, said that she continues to receive strange calls at all hours of the night on both her house and cellular phones. In these calls if they don’t insult and harass her they just call and hang up. The first call that she received was 8 days after they buried her son, in November of 2008. During that call a man’s voice insulted her and told her to keep quiet before hanging up. In another call that she received on her house phone, a voice asked her what she was doing at that moment, and she answered, “Nothing”. The man’s voice replied, “That’s how we want you: quiet.”
 
Then on June 22, 2009 she received a text message on her cellular phone saying, “Mommy, I love you so much, may God bless you. Sincerely, a corpse now.” Mrs. María Sanabria also denounces that threats that her two daughters have received, where they have been approached and told to keep quiet and not to cause anymore problems.
 
 
BLANCA NUBIA MONROY
 
At around 9:30pm on July 25, 2009 two men on a high power motorcycle and dressed in military clothing approached Mrs. Blanca Nubia Monroy’s two children, one under 15 years old and the other 17 years old. Mrs. Blanca Nubia Monroy’s other son was extra-judicially executed on March 3, 2008.
 
The supposed search was accompanied by pushing and aggressive questions where they asked the children to reveal where they lived and what they were doing in the street at that hour.
 
The strange thing about this illegal search is that only those two children were approached, despite the fact that there were others hanging around the same place.
 
EDILMA VARGAS ROJAS
 
Mrs. Edilma Vargas is the mother of Julio Cesar Mesa Vargas, who was extra-judicially executed on January 27, 2008. Mrs. Edilma Vargas had to leave her home in Soacha, in San Nicolás, because she was one of the two mothers who, after hearing rumors that Pedro Antonio Gámez Díaz was one of the men involved in the recruitment of her son, went to his house before knowing all of the facts. His house was located near her own, so she went to ask him about the location of her son. The man, previously confirmed as the person who recruited her son, denied his participation in the disappearance of her son.
 
Mrs. Edilma Vargas returned a second time to his house with the same objective in mind. However this time the person who answered the door did not want to identify himself and he told her that it was better to leave things as they are.
 
It’s fitting to mention that Pedro Antonio Gámez is currently detained.
 
FLOR HILDA HERNÁNDEZ
 
According to the denunciation of Mrs. Flor Hilda Hernández, mother of the young man Elkin Gustavo Verano Hernández who was extra-judicially executed on February 15, 2009, her phone and personal calendar were stolen on August 15 and September 20th 2009, respectively. In these belongings she had saved the names, contact numbers and addresses of all of the people and institutions that had assisted her in the denunciation of the crime against her son, so she does not consider these robberies a coincidence.
 
She also denounces that a few days ago while riding public transport to work she had to confront a man and a woman who were insulting the young people from Soacha by saying that they were “crackheads, potheads, and they deserved what they got.”
 
She was offended by what she heard and defended herself by shouting at them that they didn’t have the right to say those things and that they didn’t even know those young men. They responded to her that they knew the situation and they knew exactly who she was.
Frightened and angry, Mrs. Hernandez decided to get off of the bus.
 
While she was waiting for another bus, a funeral hearse approached her. The man in the passenger seat insists that she get inside the vehicle. She didn’t comply, and immediately gets on the bus. The funeral hearse followed the bus for several blocks.
 
From the moment that they began to denounce the disappearances and later assassinations of their sons, the mothers of Soacha, as they are known, have received threatening phone calls, have been victims of harassment, and have been victims of stalking. With the passage of time, as we see now, these actions have intensified, mainly because right now the soldiers involved in the aforementioned executions are being brought to trial.
 
Many of these women don’t want to make the facts public due to the fear that they have of making the denunciations. However, those facts that are directly relevant with the specific activities mentioned here are the results of mothers that have given statements to mass means of communication or have made their situation know to the Colombian State.
 
Nonetheless these women do not stop their search for truth, justice and comprehensive reparations. This is why they decided to intensify their denunciations and send a special communication to the United Nations Special Rapporteur Philip Alston, who visited the country in June, to make sure he is aware of the new facts and to ask him to pressure Colombian State to guarantee the physical and psychological security of the women, their families and friends that have been victims of these threats.
 
One must remember that in the Rapporteur’s first report he specifically said that the Soacha case was only the tip of the iceberg, because many extrajudicial executions were coming to light in the country.
 
This is a call to Colombian society, human rights organizations and journalists not to leave these women alone in their fight. The upcoming trials of the implicated soldiers should be monitored because the women are sure that they are not the only victims of threats relating to extrajudicial executions in the country.
 
October 28, 2009

Bogotá, Colombia

Colombia Support Network
P.O. Box 1505
Madison, WI  53701-1505
phone:  (608) 257-8753
fax:  (608) 255-6621
e-mail:  csn@igc.org
http://www.colombiasupport.net

Paramilitarism increases in the south of Bolivar, in the midst of the militarization of the region

( Translated by Natalia Jaramillo, a CSN volunteer translator)

Written by Corporación Sembrar
Wednesday, October 28th 2009
 
 
The movement of paramilitaries, by any means of transportation or through any road, was ordinary and encountered no problems with civil or military authorities. That explains why a group of 80-100 men mobilized by “chalupas” (public transportation by river), could disembark in Moralito, move to Mico Ahumado and commit murders without a problem. (Vanguardia Liberal, November 22nd, 1998).
 
Any similarity with reality is a mere coincidence? Those of us who know history and keep the strong purpose of recovering memory, won’t forget how paramilitarism started to strengthen in the ‘90’s, in the south of Bolivar state, with the proven connivance of several local, regional and national authorities.
 
Previously, the paramilitary growth was denounced nationally and internationally, because it was also publicly known and highly notorious. But in 1999 the paramilitaries declared a “frontal war” against southern Bolivar. By October 30th, 1999, through a formal communication distributed throughout the region and to the municipal media, the paramilitaries insisted in “recovering the Colombian nation, the southern territories of Bolivar and, mainly, the mountainous region of San Lucas” clearly threatening the civilians.


And that was it. The paramilitary, in connivance with members of the security forces, some landowners and public servants, unleashed a prolonged and bloody massacre against the communities of southern Bolivar that left hundreds of victims of all type, and almost all in absolute impunity.   
 
Nowadays, the paramilitaries have announced and increased their presence once again in several municipalities of southern Bolivar. In March 2009 a communication was handed out in some important municipalities, in which they expressed:
 
“We, the Gaitán Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, inform the communities of the south of the Bolivar Department about the presence of our men in this region of the national territory. As other regions, this one was previously subject to the actions of subversive groups and the settlement of fronts from the demobilized United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, which explains why its inhabitants suffered personally the ravages of the armed conflict in Colombia…”.
 
By October 27th, 2008, the incursion of paramilitaries in the municipality of Montecristo (Bolívar) was denounced publicly as they were starting to do sporadic road blocks in which they identified themselves as “Gaitan Self-Defense Forces”. Later, it was denounced that the paramilitaries were settled in the rural neighborhood La Ventura, from the Tiquisio municipality, where they exerted control over the area.
 
The Government has received the exact information of their actions, but nothing has happened… or rather, a lot has happened in the sense that nowadays the paramilitaries have a strong presence in more municipalities, set up road blocks when they want, murder, patrol the villages, steal belongings from the population, threaten, terrorize. They are each day more consolidated before the eyes of the local, regional and national governments, who insist in saying that paramilitarism in Colombia was demobilized and doesn’t exist anymore.
 
It’s the same story. In 1998, the rural and mining communities organized a peasant exodus to Barrancabermeja where they requested protection from the national government due to the increase of paramilitarism, just as it is happening now. During that year, the national government committed to protect the population through agreements subscribed by the President himself. However, these agreements ended up being only a sad legend. The violent attacks against the communities were more evident every day. Massacres, forced disappearance, mutilations, tortures, extrajudicial executions, forced displacement, and burnt houses and towns were the answers to the calls of attention that the population, the church and the organizations were making. Without counting the number of dead bodies that the Madgalena River carried along its course.
 
At that time, several media reported how the paramilitaries arrived and took control over the area. After their incursion in the rural area of Simoita, Morales, in November 6th 1998, they paralyzed the transportation and forbid the circulation of food to the population. And at the same time, they continued with their criminal routine of murdering people and burning homes in the rural neighborhood of Arcadia, in the same municipality of Morales. These operations displaced more than 50 persons to the main municipality. From November 13th, after several incursions in Morales where they plundered houses, the paramilitaries took control over the transportation in Morales and Mico Ahumado. (Vanguardia Liberal, November 15th, and El Tiempo, November 17th, 1998)
 
During that time the localization of paramilitary bases (few meters away from stations or bases from the security forces) was known and reported to the national government. The movement of paramilitaries in the region was public and notorious, as well as the places where they did road blocks, who were their allies, who helped them, and other places where they stayed… but there was no action against it.
 
After many years, history has told us we were right. Paramilitarism is evident in Colombia; it has been created, protected and defended by the State; the calls of attention of human and social rights organizations were true, and they didn’t respond to any political bias as some called it. The explanations the government gave were clear now because, as paramilitarism was a State’s project, they didn’t do anything to counteract the criminal actions, and instead they strengthened it throughout the country.
 
Current situation

Paramilitarism strolls around the urban centers of various southern Bolivar municipalities, as it is known in the municipalities of Rio Viejo, Arena and Tiquisio. The inhabitants of the urban center of Tiquisio called the attention to the presence of 6 alleged paramilitary chiefs, who had a different discourse: “that they are there for the drug trade business, but they will get rid of those who step in their way”.
 
Meanwhile, the measures adopted by the municipal, departmental and national governments have been useless in trying to stop their progress. We don’t understand why, in the midst of the militarization of the region, these groups can operate so freely.
 
At Tiquisio: On October 20th, 2009, at around 6:30 pm, LEONARDO SORACA was found dead with signs of torture on the road that leads from the main municipality of Puerto Rico to the rural neighborhood El Sudán, in a farm located 20 minutes away from de urban center. He was around 25-30 years old, worked as a mototaxi driver and lived in the urban center of Puerto Rico, in the Tiquisio municipality. According to what the community said, the young man received a call to pick up a passenger in Puerto Gaitán and, after that, he was killed. Leonardo Soraca had been a peasant soldier of the Nariño Battalion and finished his military service in mid 2006.
 
Two days before, men dressed in black were seen in the rural neighborhood or Puerto Rico and the community recognized them as paramilitaries. They were traveling in motorcycles that belonged to the same place where LEONARDO SORACÁ was found dead.
 
At the municipality of Río Viejo the paramilitaries have been present for several weeks. These are armed men dressed in civilian clothes who identify themselves to the population as “Águilas Negras” (a known paramilitary group), and they mobilize in motorbikes along with other demobilized men from the region. As well, outsiders have been seen surprisingly doing different commercial activities, which increases the distrust among the people.
 
More than 20 paramilitaries have stayed for several weeks, doing road blocks and other activities in front of the farm called Villa Mercedes, located in the exit that leads from Rio Viejo to the municipality of Arenal. Aside from the illegal road blocks, they have done night patrols along the neighborhoods of the urban center, announcing “social cleansing” activities. Also, it has been denounced that these groups have been conscripting the youth from the region.   
 
During the week from the 10th to the 17th of October, proximately 100 paramilitaries arrived and settled in the farm “La Democracia” (Democracy), located in the rural neighborhood of Caimital in the Rio Viejo municipality. Also, a strong paramilitary presence has been seen in the port of La Gloria (Cesar) and in the rural neighborhood of Papayal in the San Martín de Loba municipality.
 
In the night of October 23rd, 2009, several hooded armed men were seen at the gas station located over the road that goes from Rio Viejo to Norosí, while other hooded armed men in motorcycles were seen patrolling the urban center of Rio Viejo. That same night, over the same street where the paramilitaries were patrolling, two merchants were assaulted and a young man was beaten when he was passing by.
 
Some precedents

1.    In the month of March, 2009, paramilitary groups from the south of Bolívar manifested through a public communication their armed presence and actions in the region of southern Bolivar, and identified themselves as “Gaitan Self-Defense Forces of Colombia”.
 
2.    At the municipality of Rio Viejo: In March 26th, 2009, approximately 30 paramilitaries coming from La Gloria (Cesar), disembarked in Rio Viejo and the event was publicly known. This disembark caused collective panic among in Rio Viejo and its inhabitants were warned to stay inside their houses and go to bed early just in case it was a new incursion like those they were victims of before, like the one occurred in 1997.
 
During the month of April, a warning circulated the Rio Viejo municipality, saying: “get prepared because soon there will be a slaughter, all of those who have been related to the municipal administration, as it is…”. They also threatened 24 specific persons of this municipality and added: “know that we don’t believe any tales from the Army or the Police, soon your worst nightmare will start”.
 
3.    At Pueblito Mejía: On Monday, January 5th, 2009, members of one paramilitary group entered the rural neighborhood of Pueblito Mejía (part of the municipality of Barranco de Loba), carrying a list of persons who they intended conscript or murder, according to what the paramilitaries said.
They entered a bar in the urban center where they ordered to close the doors and proceeded to detain two young men. One of them was, known as “el mono”, was killed when he opposed to leave with them by force. The other young man could escape.
The members of this paramilitary group identified themselves as the men of “Don Mario” and were settled at the farm known as “Canabate”, located in the outskirts of the town. They offered money to the inhabitants saying that they were going to build a “kitchen” to process drugs.
 
4.    At the municipality of Arenal: In the month of August, 2009, the VI Regional Assembly for the Communities of the south of Bolívar was in session. During the sessions the paramilitaries were seen in the urban center asking about the Assembly. Arenal’s municipal authorities know about paramilitary presence in Palmas and Buenavista, where they have settled and are exerting control over this part of the municipality.
 
5.    At the municipality of Simití, the situation is similar. In April 9th, 2009, 5 men dressed in black and armed with rifles, were seen at the port of Nueva Esperanza, in front of Vijagual.
 
The 15th of April, 5 men, also dressed in black and armed with rifles, were seen at Ciénaga del Totumo and, according to statements, they approached a group of peasants from the rural neighborhood of Garzal, saying: “They think they can continue sabotaging” while referring to the community from this neighborhood. The men stayed there until midnight.
 
The 17th of April, 2009, 30 armed men dressed in black camped during a day in a house near the port of Nueva Esperanza, forcing the end of the day’s classes at the school of Tierra Firme and Vijagual, in the municipality of Simití. Vijagual’s Police Station was warned, but they didn’t arrive until the afternoon when the armed group had already left. Towards the end of June some leaders of the rural neighborhood of El Garzal were threatened again.
 
Between the 18th and 22nd of March, 2008, during the celebrations of the holy week, a group of 50 paramilitaries arrived to the area of Tierra Linda, in the rural neighborhood of El Garzal. There they established road blocks and interrogated those who were going to the rural areas of Nueva Esperenza and El Garzal.
 
6.    At Santa Rosa: In December 26th, 2008, some members of the community saw three hooded men with long guns at the road from Los Abanicos to Mina Caribe, in the municipality of Santa Rosa. The men tried to identify a local man and then said “it’s not him, we were wrong” and allowed him to continue.
 
7.    Between the 16th and the 21st of December, 2008, after a request from the communities, a Verification Commission arrived at the region composed by the Colombian Public Prosecutor’s office, the Human Rights Presidential Program from the Vice Presidency of the Republic, the Human Rights Ombudsman’s office, the Department’s Government. They expressed that, following the testimonies gathered at the municipality of Tiquisio, “at the main area of the municipality there is presence of the National Police and the Nariño Batallion who, according to the manifestations of some community members, have not taken any measures in this regard… In this sense, the Departmental Peace Commissionate suggested they should request the minute from the Security Council that had taken place the previous Monday in the municipality of Magangué with the participation of the Majors of Magangué, Montecristo and Barranco de Loba. There they denounced the presence of alleged reinserted paramilitaries and drug dealers in the municipalities of Barranco de Loba and Motecristo…”.
 
8.    The 4th of April, 2008, various persons received a threatening e-mail from the paramilitary group self-identified as “Águilas Negras – Bloque Norte de Colombia”. In it they express that the members of Fedeagromisbol, Sembrar, Peace and Development Program of the Magdalena Medio, and the priests from Regidor, Tiquisio and Arenal, from the south of Bolivar, have been declared military targets. The e-mail adds: “your name is in the list of non-desired persons by the national government, and must be eliminated”, accusing them of being members or contributors of Guerrillas.
 
9.    Such threat says: “You and the organizations you represent are a problem for Colombia”, and finally sentenced that “for every criminal act you organize in these towns against the Democratic Security, you will be exterminated one by one in the list’s order”.
 
10. In the same way, the e-mail says that the persons and organizations under threat have also been followed in the municipalities of Tiquisio, Arenal, Morales, Aguachica, La Gloria and Regidor: “Wherever you go, you have been organizing assemblies that make people stupid, but this bullshit is going to end”.
 
11. The threat ends saying “we are watching you minute by minute. It is time to put an end to the bullshit you have in these towns. The annihilation plan against you will start in the end of any activity. We are not going to doubt in murdering you, so inform your families so they can start burying you”.
 
12. In April 19th, 2008, Fedeagromisbol (Agro-mining Federation of the South of Bolivar) and Espacio Humanitario in Tiquisio, received a new threatening e-mail sent by Commandant Camilo, member of the Northern Block of the paramilitaries known as “Águilas Negras” (ccamolarantes@yahoo.es). It includes specific names of leaders, priests and members of social organizations from the region, who were also threatened in the previous communication.
 
In view of these events, we, the communities and organizations, request to the national and international community your solidarity so these events won’t happen EVER AGAIN.

We ask the media not to remain silent. They have a historic responsibility as they are in charge of the power of Communications that is and has been decisive in Colombia.

We ask the Colombian Government and the Congress of Colombia to take real, appropriate and efficient measures to counteract the increase of paramilitary groups and actions that are terrorizing and frightening the South of Bolivar. Also, to adopt special measures to protect the inhabitants and their leaders, and to stop the free actions of criminal structures in the South of Bolivar.


We ask the control and judicial organisms, to fulfill their constitutional and legal functions and therefore investigate and sanction the public servants who, by action or omission, have been responsible of the establishment of such cruelty in this region of the country.



Colombia, October 2009


Corporación Sembrar
Federación Agrominera del Sur de Bolívar
Fundación Comité de Solidaridad con los Presos Políticos
Red de Hermandad y Solidaridad con Colombia
Asociación Nomadesc
Corporación Utopías
Campaña prohibido olvidar
Proceso de Comunidades Negras.
Asociación Paz con Dignidad

Colombia Support Network
P.O. Box 1505
Madison, WI  53701-1505
phone:  (608) 257-8753
fax:  (608) 255-6621
e-mail:  csn@igc.org
http://www.colombiasupport.net

The fight for Justice and Truth of Alberto and Federico

The Fight for Justice and Truth of Alberto and Federico*

( Translated by Dan Baird, a CSN volunteer translator)
 
 
[*The two  men’s full names have been omitted at their request as have the names  of the places where the events took place]

Wednesday 21 October 2009
An investigation by  the Peace and Justice  Unit   is  the remaining  hope for  brothers Alberto and Frederico that one day what happened to them– that they survived an attempt to behead them – will be made known and that those responsible will be punished.
Truth and reparation are still  owed in justice to brothers Alberto and Frederico.  Their story symbolizes the long and difficult legal struggle of thousands of victims in Colombia. Alberto,  a 37- year old  Antioqueño  who had a miraculous escape, told  Verdad Abierta [Open Truth, a website dedicated to reconstructing the historical memory of paramilitarism and armed conflict]: “With the help of attorneys of the Peace and Justice Unit [la Unidad de Justicia en Paz] in Medellín, we are seeking to have the investigation , closed almost ten years ago, reopened  so that what happened to us is not covered by immunity and those responsible are punished.”
 
He comes from northeastern Antioquia, a sub-region that for a good part of the 1990s and into the new century was the scene of bloody actions by guerrillas from FARC [Revolutionary  Armed Forces of Colombia]  and ELN [Army of National Liberation] and by paramilitaries from a number of groups:   Metro, Autodefensas Campesinas de Córdoba y Urabá (Accu), Central Bolívar, and Mineros y Héroes de Granada de las Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (Auc). Alberto can often be seen, like many victims of this war, going from office to office in the corridors of the fifth floor of the Justice Building in Medellín, where the attorneys of the Peace and Justice Unit work. Some of these victims are seeking support in stopping the legal process from coming to a halt, others are looking for help in their uncertain economic situations or for advice about their health problems.
 
Always, Alberto carries under his arm a small black plastic bag containing his documents: certificates  from the Presidential Agency for Social Action [la Agencia Presidencial para la Acción Social],  medical assessments, and records of twelve years of reports given to the authorities. As he says, these old papers contain his history.
 
In his conversation with Verdad Abierta, Alberto recalls what happened to him: “On 13 March 1997, at six o’clock in the morning, there was a raid on the house where we were living by  the District  Attorney, together with his Secretary, and  Lieutenant Mauricio Cárdenas Romero – the commander  of the police station – and several policemen. They told us they were looking for weapons, because someone had told them that we had them. After ransacking the house and finding nothing, Lieutenant Mauricio told us, ‘We’re leaving but others will come for you tomorrow.’ “About midnight the next night, there was knocking on the door.  I asked who was there and the reply was that it was the police.  I felt relieved and opened the door.  It was Lieutenant Mauricio
again,  with a policeman called Herney Quintero, an army sergeant and another soldier whose names I don’t remember, and three paramilitaries from the Metro Group: one I knew as Gustavo Giraldo and the other two as ‘Balazo’ and  ‘Tiber’.
“I was in the house with my two brothers, and with the wife and daughter of one of  them. The youngest brother they only hit and robbed – they took several jewels, at that time worth more-or-less a million  pesos. My brother Federico and I they hit quite a lot and tied our hands with ropes. The Lieutenant threw me on the floor, put the barrel of his carbine in my mouth and pushed it as if he was going to shoot, but it had no bullets. All  this left me totally confused.
“After beating us, they took us from the house in the direction of  the main highway. The neighborhood where we lived at that time was five minutes away from the main park in the town.
They took us to the entrance to the town and we had to wait there for more than an hour
until we were collected in  a white van. I remember as if it was today that when it came, and they put us in, Lieutenant Mauricio said to the policeman Quintero, the sergeant and the three paramilitaries that they  should ‘do the thing right. Then he went off on a motorcycle, heading in the direction of the police station. “The took us in the van along  the main highway to  the Northeast and, when we had been going for about fifteen minutes, the van stopped and the sergeant ordered them to take me out. Some meters from the van, one of the soldiers made me lie  facedown on the ground.  They repeated to him the order that Lieutenant Mauricio had given: ‘Do the thing right’.
 
“The soldier began to cut my throat as if I was a piece of meat.  I felt that he was doing it in fear . He wasn’t  hitting me with the machete but cutting me.  He made three attempts   When the  sergeant was getting ready to get out of the van, the soldier said, ‘That’s it done’ and pushed me into a ditch. I think it was about two o’clock in the morning.
“A friend of mine, a miner, told me long afterwards that when he was going to work that day, about ten o’clock in the morning, he saw me tied up in the ditch and heard me shouting. But he was afraid to come and get me up and he just went on. Afterwards, however, he eventually showed other people from the town the exact place where I was and they collected me in an ambulance and took me to hospital. By now it was about five o’clock in the afternoon.   “They gave me first aid there  and sent me on to San Vicente de Paúl hospital  in  Medellín.  The back of my neck was wide open but they told me that  the wound was full of sand and that had stopped me from bleeding to death.
 
“Some time afterwards,  my brother Federico told me that that they took him further on and tried to do the same to him,  but he struggled a lot.  They struck him in the neck with machetes and tried  to cut his throat.  They threw him into a gully but he didn’t  die there,  because a woman found him and  took care of him.  He ended up,  like me,  in San Vicente de Paúl hospital.  When the rumor spread that we were alive, our family realised that we were in the same hospital.
“As soon as I recovered, I lodged a report with the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the office of the Human Rights Ombudsman and the  Government’s Internal Affairs Office. I reported the Lieutenant and the other policemen and the soldiers and the paramilitaries. Two months afterwards, the policemen of the town were transferred.  Much later, the three paramilitaries were killed.  I managed to get a lawyer but he didn’t only let time limits go past, he also robbed me of a lot of money.
 
“As well as that, a specialist attorney from here in Medellín had me running back and forwards until he closed the investigation , which wasn’t until 2000.  Every time that I came from the town to find out here how things were going, that specialist attorney sent me to the IVth Brigade because the paperwork was there. But when I went there, it never appeared. He made me go to the Police Department in Antioquia, and there was nothing there. Three times he made me go to the IVth Brigade in Puerto Berrío, but there was nothing there either.
 
“Who did investigate the case very well was a woman official in the Internal Affairs Office, but I don’t know what happened to the investigation in that office. I know that that official sent some documentation to Bogotá so that proceedings could be taken against the policemen and soldiers who attacked us.  But again I didn’t find out anything.
 
“The wounds they gave me affected my spine. My nervous system has been affected and that’s why my hands shake so much. I’ve got to take all sorts of medication, otherwise I’d be an invalid. I’m 53 per cent disabled. I’ve had 21 operations and I’m to have two more.  I’m given the operations through Sisben [a means test for social programs], but subject to legal compensation. I applied for an operation a  month-and-a-half ago but this time it hasn’t been authorized..
 
“Think of it: 12 years have passed and very few people have helped me. It was only this year, on 19 Sptember,  that Social Action [Acción Social, a strategy to help minority groups] gave me what they call humanitarian aid.  But in order to get it I had to apply for Government compensation under the law, because they didn’t want to classify me as a displaced person.

“I haven’t been able to go back to stay in my hometown, because I’m greatly afraid, particularly of the police, who’ve always worked with those paramilitary groups. I’ve had to stay in Medellín, trying to restart my life, selling pirate CDs in the street here. When my brother recovered, he went back to the town.
 
“I come here often to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, because the attorney of the Peace and Justice Unit, who knows my case, is working to bring about justice and so that impunity doesn’t apply. That’s my hope.  I’m not afraid of the investigation being reopened, if  God wills that to be done.  If anything happens to me, my brother or my family, it should be clear that the police are responsible.”
Wednesday 21 October 2009, 17:35.





Colombia Support Network
P.O. Box 1505
Madison, WI  53701-1505
phone:  (608) 257-8753
fax:  (608) 255-6621
e-mail:  csn@igc.org
http://www.colombiasupport.net

Neither Dead nor Displaced from Cabildo Cerro Tijeras

(Translated by Steve Cagan, a CSN volunteer translator)
 
 
Altamira, July 10, 2009
 
Yesterday the week ended that the Black Eagles had given as a deadline to the members of the Cerro Tijeras Cabildo [governing council—SC] in the department of Norte de Cauca to leave the area under pain of being murdered.  While there had been massive demands and denunciations ventilated by different friendly organizations, during this week of uncertainty there has been no pronouncement nor a single government action to defend the lives of the threatened persons.
 
This is not the first time that we in Cauca raise an early warning about things that have happened to our communities and territories. However on NO occasion have we been listened to, and many of these barbarities have needed in massacres that could have been avoided. We accuse the government of complicity by omission in the slaughters that have brought such sorrow to the ancestral peoples of Colombia. Your passive attitude, your words that find no echo, and your indolent behavior convert you into a suspect of the highest order, “silence is a confession” our elders say.
 
Mister President, we do not want your words of condolence for our dead, we do not need your glittering promises with which you repair your silence, we want nothing from you; instead of your gifts we insist that you fulfill your constitutional duty to safeguard the life, honor and possessions of the Colombian people. The government’s silence has caused more death and sorrow that that caused by the guerrillas through their awful behavior.
 
In the face of such threats the community, fully supported their leaders that for no reason should they leave the region. If they want to murder them, they will have to do the same with the four thousand people registered in the Cabildo. We are not going to run away nor leave our territories in the face of the cowardice of the armed men. We are not going to allow multinational companies foreign to our country and inclined to wipe out everything in their path to come here on the basis of a false promise of development. We encourage everyone to join our angry voice in a strong song; let no one stay behind when it’s a question of life itself. Everyone must be converted into a reflective voice in the spaces in which they move. Let’s talks with our neighbors, with our pals, with our teachers, in the house with our people—let’s put the topic of life, of dignity, on the table; it’s time for us to begin to talk with our own words.
 
Threatened: Governor of the Cabildo ([Ms.] Melba Güetio), President of ASI (Enrique Güetio, under precautionary measures of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights because of the denunciations in the case of the massacre of Naya), Education Coordinator (Leandro Güetio, also under precautionary measures), President of the Junta de Acción Comunitaria [Community Action Board—SC] (Leonardo Güetio), Municipal Council Member of Suárez (Meraldiño Caviche), and members of the commune: Ismael Quina, Nelson Ulcué, Pedro Guamanga, Belarmino Cuetia, Floresmiro Cruz Coyo and Jaime Cuetia Cruz. Whatever happens to any one of these persons is the direct responsibility of the national government, by omission and permissiveness.
 
The community of Cerro Tijeras has understood that the threat is not limited to just these names, and that the entire indigenous collective there is threatened. Definitely, every time that someone tries to intimidate a citizen, it is all Colombia that is at risk.
 
 
 
Cabildo Indígena Cerro Tijeras [The Indigenous Council of Cerro Tijeras]

Colombia Support Network
P.O. Box 1505
Madison, WI  53701-1505
phone:  (608) 257-8753
fax:  (608) 255-6621
e-mail:  csn@igc.org
http://www.colombiasupport.net

Alberto and Federico seek justice

 
 
The Fight for Justice and Truth of Alberto and Federico*

( Translated by Dan Baird, a CSN volunteer translator)
 
 
 
[*The two  men’s full names have been omitted at their request as have the names  of the places where the events took place]

Wednesday 21 October 2009
An investigation by the Peace and Justice Unit   is  the remaining  hope for brothers Alberto and Frederico that one day what happened to them– that they survived an attempt to behead them – will be made known and that those responsible will be punished.
Truth and reparation are still  owed in justice to brothers Alberto and Frederico.  Their story symbolizes the long and difficult legal struggle of thousands of victims in Colombia.   Alberto,  a 37- year old Antioqueño  who had a miraculous escape, told  Verdad Abierta [Open Truth, a website dedicated to reconstructing the historical memory of paramilitarism and armed conflict]: “With the help of attorneys of the Peace and Justice Unit [la Unidad de Justicia en Paz] in Medellín, we are seeking to have the investigation , closed almost ten years ago, reopened  so that what happened to us is not covered by immunity and those responsible are punished.”
 
He comes from northeastern Antioquia, a sub-region that for a good part of the 1990s and into the new century was the scene of bloody actions by guerrillas from FARC [Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia] and ELN [Army of National Liberation] and by paramilitaries from a number of groups:   Metro, Autodefensas Campesinas de Córdoba y Urabá (Accu), Central Bolívar, and Mineros y Héroes de Granada de las Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (Auc). Alberto can often be seen, like many victims of this war, going from office to office in the corridors of the fifth floor of the Justice Building in Medellín, where the attorneys of the Peace and Justice Unit work. Some of these  victims are seeking support in stopping the legal process from coming to a halt, others are looking for help in their uncertain economic situations or for advice about their health problems.  
 
Always, Alberto carries under his arm a small black plastic bag containing his documents: certificates from the Presidential Agency for Social Action [la Agencia Presidencial para la Acción Social],  medical assessments, and records of twelve years of reports given to the authorities. As he says, these old papers contain his history.
 
In his conversation with Verdad Abierta, Alberto recalls what happened to him: “On 13 March 1997, at six o’clock in the morning, there was a raid on the house where we were living by the District  Attorney, together with his Secretary, and Lieutenant Mauricio Cárdenas Romero – the commander  of the police station – and several policemen. They told us they were looking for weapons, because someone had told them that we had them. After ransacking the house and finding nothing, Lieutenant Mauricio told us, ‘We’re leaving but others will come for you tomorrow.’ “About midnight the next night, there was knocking on the door.  I asked who was there and the reply was that it was the police.  I felt relieved and opened the door.  It was Lieutenant Mauricio
again,  with a policeman called Herney Quintero, an army sergeant and another soldier whose names I don’t remember, and three paramilitaries from the Metro Group: one I knew as Gustavo Giraldo and the other two as ‘Balazo’  and  ‘Tiber’.
“I was in the house with my two brothers, and with the wife and daughter of one of  them. The youngest brother they only hit and robbed – they took several jewels, at that time worth more-or-less a million pesos. My brother Federico and I they hit quite a lot and tied our hands with ropes. The Lieutenant threw me on the floor,  put the barrel of his carbine in my mouth and pushed it as if he was going to shoot, but it had no bullets.  All  this left me totally confused.
“After beating us, they took us from the house  in the direction of  the main highway. The neighborhood where we lived at that time was five minutes away from the main park in the town.
They took us to the entrance to the town and we had to wait there for more than an hour
until we were collected in a white van. I remember as if it was today that when it came, and they put us in, Lieutenant Mauricio said to the policeman Quintero, the sergeant and the three paramilitaries that they should ‘do the thing right. Then he went off on a motorcycle, heading in the direction of the police station. “The took us in the van along  the main highway to  the Northeast and, when we had been going for about fifteen minutes, the van stopped and the sergeant ordered them to take me out. Some meters from the van, one of the soldiers made me lie  facedown on the ground.  They repeated to him the order that Lieutenant Mauricio had given: ‘Do the thing right’.
 
“The soldier began to cut my throat as if I was a piece of meat.  I felt that he was doing it in fear . He wasn’t  hitting me with the machete but cutting me. He made three attempts  When the  sergeant was getting ready to get out of the van, the soldier said, ‘That’s it done’ and pushed me into a ditch. I think it was about two o’clock in the morning.
“A friend of mine, a miner, told me long afterwards that when he was going to work that day, about ten o’clock in the morning, he saw me tied up in the ditch and heard me shouting. But he was afraid to come and get me up and he just went on. Afterwards, however, he eventually showed other people from the town the exact place where I was and they collected me in an ambulance and took me to hospital. By now it was about five o’clock in the afternoon.   “They gave me first aid there  and sent me on to San Vicente de Paúl hospital  in  Medellín.  The back of my neck was wide open but they told me that  the wound was full of sand and that had stopped me from bleeding to death.
 
“Some time afterwards, my brother Federico told me that that they took him further on and tried to do the same to him,  but he struggled a lot.  They struck him in the neck with machetes and tried to cut his throat.  They threw him into a gully but he didn’t die there,  because a woman found him and  took care of him.  He ended up,  like me,  in San Vicente de Paúl hospital.  When the rumor spread that we were alive, our family realised that we were in the same hospital.
“As soon as I recovered, I lodged a report with the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the office of the Human Rights Ombudsman and the  Government’s Internal Affairs Office. I reported the Lieutenant and the other policemen and the soldiers and the paramilitaries. Two months afterwards, the policemen of the town were transferred.  Much later, the three paramilitaries were killed.  I managed to get a lawyer but he didn’t only let time limits go past, he also robbed me of a lot of money.
 
“As well as that, a specialist attorney from here in Medellín had me running back and forwards until he closed the investigation , which wasn’t until 2000.  Every time that I came from the town to find out here how things were going, that  specialist attorney sent me to the IVth Brigade because the paperwork was there. But when I went there, it never appeared. He made me go to the Police Department in Antioquia, and there was nothing there. Three times he made me go to the IVth Brigade in Puerto Berrío, but there was nothing there either.
 
“Who did investigate the case very well was a woman official in the Internal Affairs Office, but I don’t know what happened to the investigation in that office. I know that that official sent some documentation to Bogotá so that proceedings could be taken against the policemen and soldiers who attacked us.  But again I didn’t find out anything.
 
“The wounds they gave me affected my spine.  My nervous system has been affected and that’s why my hands shake so much. I’ve got to take all sorts of medication, otherwise I’d be an invalid. I’m 53 per cent disabled. I’ve had 21 operations and I’m to have two more.  I’m given the operations through Sisben [a means test for social programs], but subject to legal compensation. I applied for an operation a month-and-a-half ago but this time it hasn’t been authorized..
 
“Think of it: 12 years have passed and very few people have helped me. It was only this year, on 19 Sptember,  that Social Action [Acción Social, a strategy to help minority groups] gave me what they call humanitarian aid.  But in order to get it I had to apply for Government compensation under the law, because they didn’t want to classify me as a displaced person.

“I haven’t been able to go back to stay in my hometown, because I’m greatly afraid, particularly of the police,  who’ve always worked with those  paramilitary groups. I’ve had to stay in Medellín, trying to restart my life, selling pirate CDs in the street here. When my brother recovered, he went back to the town.
 
“I come here often to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, because the attorney of the Peace and Justice Unit, who knows my case, is working to bring about justice and so that impunity doesn’t apply.  That’s my hope.  I’m not afraid of the investigation being reopened, if  God wills that  to be done.  If anything happens to me, my brother or my family, it should be clear that the police are responsible.”
Wednesday 21 October 2009, 17:35.

 








Colombia Support Network
P.O. Box 1505
Madison, WI  53701-1505
phone:  (608) 257-8753
fax:  (608) 255-6621
e-mail:  csn@igc.org
http://www.colombiasupport.net