Six soldiers found guilty of the murder of Colombian indigenous leader’s husband

Monday 14th June 2010

Last Friday a judge in the south-western city of Popayan, Colombia, found six soldiers guilty of the charge of murder in relation to the death of Edwin Legarda on 16th December 2008. A seventh soldier was acquitted because it could not be proved that he had fired his weapon. Legarda was the husband of Aida Quilcue, then leader of the Cauca Regional Indigenous Council (CRIC)and spokesperson of the Social and Communitarian Minga. In November 2008 Aida led the Minga’s mass-demonstrations, including a heated televised debate with President Alvaro Uribe. Edwin was killed less than a month after the debate in an attack seemingly meant for Aida herself (you can see Aida’s speech in the debate at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ev5ypoxWL4). The Minga was very successful in drawing national and international attention to the systematic human rights violations by the Colombian army, paramilitaries and the FARC guerrilla group.

The attack took place at 4am whilst he was on his way to pick up Aida, who had just arrived from Geneva where she had participated in the UN Periodic Review of Human Rights. The soldiers fired 116 bullets at the official CRIC car which Edwin was driving, fatally wounding Mr Legarda. Immediately after the killing President Uribe and army figures claimed that Edwin had failed to stop at an army checkpoint, and for this reason the soldiers opened fire. However investigators proved that no such checkpoint existed. Prosecutors in the case stated that had Edwin not managed to drive another 3 kilometres from the scene of the attack before succumbing to his injuries then the soldiers were planning to dress his corpse up in guerrilla fatigues and thus substantiate the government’s claims that the indigenous movement and the Minga are ‘terrorist’ organisations.

The soldiers will be sentenced on August 16th. After the judgement Aida praised the judge’s impartiality in the face of political pressure and intimidation, and insisted that she will not stop until she sees those who gave the order for Edwin’s murder also face justice. “These soldiers (who were found guilty) are all from humble backgrounds: we know they were following orders of their superiors. We demand to know who gave the order, and to see them behind bars too.”

Aida visited the UK in September 2009 at the invitation of Unison, NTUC and the Colombia Solidarity campaign. During her visit she met with MPs, trade unionists, the Latin community and students to raise awareness about the human rights situation in Colombia. She continued, “People must realise that whilst this case has been resolved very quickly, this is a big exception to the rule. There are thousands and thousands of cases which remain in total impunity, and more indigenous leaders, human rights defenders and trade unionists are being the victim of political violence everyday. People need to realise that in Colombia nothing has changed, and not believe what the Colombian government says.”

President Uribe and his government have repeatedly publicly criticised the Colombian justice system when it pursues cases of human rights violations by the armed forces and corruption by his governing coalition. Last week he announced a new legislative project which if approved would see cases of human rights violations and crimes against humanity involving soldiers being tried in the military justice system as opposed to the civilian justice system. Uribe argues that this law is necessary in order to protect soldiers whilst they are serving their country. Human rights groups, however, argue that the move would ensure impunity in the cases.