Urgent Action

Human rights organisations in Southwest Colombia department receive paramilitary death threats yet again
Upsurge in paramilitary persecution and violence continues in the region

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

Emotional Aida Quilcue speech in public debate with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe (with subtitles!)

This video is from the televised public debate between President Alvaro Uribe and his government and the Minga of Social and Communitarian Resistance, on 2nd November 2008.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ev5ypoxWL4

Background:

On October 12th 2008, close to 15,000 indigenous protestors gathered in La Maria indigenous reserve, Piendamo municipality, Cauca department in Southern Colombia, demanding a public debate with President Alvaro Uribe. The Indians wanted to discuss the systematic human rights violation and forced displacement which their communities had suffered for years, and which had reached a crescendo under the Uribe administration. When President Uribe refused to meet with the Indians, the protestors blocked the Pan-American highway. The Indian called the mobilisations a 'Minga of Social and Communitarian Resistance', 'minga' being an indigenous word for an action carried out in unity by a group of people. The government's reaction to the protests was to use firearms against the unarmed protestors (see video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxcpRabXwyk), which the government initially denied, but was forced to admit when CNN news broadcast a video which showed masked policemen shooting at the protestors with rifles. One protestor was killed, and 122 were seriously injured, many with gunshot wounds.

The Minga attracted a large amount of national and international attention, and President Uribe eventually agreed to a public debate in La Maria, Piendamo. In his opening address, President Uribe criticised the Minga's participants for sitting down during the national anthem, claiming it showed a lack of respect for a national symbol. This video shows Aida Quilcue's opening address, in response to President Uribe's remarks. At the time Aida was spokesperson for the Minga, and leader of the Cauca Regional Indigenous Council (CRIC).

Just over a month after this debate, Aida's husband Edwin Legarda was murdered by the Colombian army in an attack seemingly meant for Aida. On 16th December 2008 he was driving the official CRIC car when he was ambushed. Seven soldiers are currently on trial for the murder, however all are low-ranking regular soldiers. Aida is convinced that the order for the murder came from the top of the government, and vows to ensure that justice is done and those responsible for ordering her husband's death end up behind bars.

Social and Communitarian Minga continues to walk the word

More than 500 representatives of social organisations from all over the country met in Santander department, Northeast Colombia on 19th, 20th and 21st February to define the Minga’s agenda for 2010. The participants in three days of intense debate were indigenous, Afro-Colombian and Campesino community members, trade unionists, miners, students, women’s groups, human rights defenders, youth organisations, petrol workers and urban community organisation representatives.

The Social and Communitarian Minga is a broad-based social process which began in October 2008 with unprecedented mobilisations led by the country’s indigenous movements culminating in 40,000 participating in a 2-week march between the cities of Cali and Bogota. Along the way the Minga held public rallies in various towns and cities to discuss the social and humanitarian crisis in the country, in a process dubbed ‘walking the word’. The Minga seeks to unite all social sectors in protest over the systematic human rights abuses which occur in the country, and the humanitarian and social crisis created by the policies of President Alvaro Uribe’s government, whilst also proposing an alternative model for the country based on social justice, respect for human rights and the environment, and ‘bottom-up’ democracy.

The meeting, which took place in the city of Bucaramanga and the towns of Giron and Piedecuesta, defined three key moments for the Minga to work towards in 2010. Events will be organised in May based around May Day, and protests will also be held around the country in July to counter the government’s celebrations of 200 years of “independence”. This year’s key event is October’s Peoples’ Congress, a large-scale event which will ‘legislate for the people’ due to repeated governments’ failures to legislate in favour of the large majority of the Colombian population.

There were also a series of cultural events and public protests, including a march in Piedecuesta and a rally in Giron. Locals in the towns were intrigued and supportive towards the mingueros, with some entering to participate in the events. Delegates heard about some of the problems being faced by the local populations, including a planned giant rubbish tip which is already displacing people from poor neighbourhoods in Giron. They heard the moving account of a trade unionist from the national oil workers union USO about the strike which British Petroleum workers are currently carrying out in Casanare, and the police repression which they have met with. BP has so far refused to enter into any negotiation with the workers (for more info see Colombia Solidarity Campaign website).

One of the topics discussed this weekend was the importance of international participation in the Minga, and it is hoped that this year’s agenda will have strong international participation and lead to the internationalisation of the Minga.