Amnesty International, Amnesty International Report 1994 - Colombia, 1 January 1994, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6a9ef94.html [accessed 17 September 2023]
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Many hundreds of people were extrajudicially executed by the armed forces and their paramilitary agents. Over 120 people "disappeared" after being seized by the security forces or paramilitary groups. "Death squad"-style killings of people regarded as "disposable" in urban areas continued. Over 1,000 people were tried for alleged "terrorist" offences; some were possible prisoners of conscience. Some political detainees were tortured or ill-treated. The armed forces continued to evade accountability for thousands of extrajudicial executions and "disappearances" in recent years. Armed opposition groups committed grave human rights abuses: several hundred people were held hostage and scores more were deliberately and arbitrarily killed. In March negotiations opened between the government and the Socialist Renewal Current, a small, dissident wing of the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN), National Liberation Army, an armed opposition group. The dialogue was interrupted in September after two of the group's negotiators were killed by the army in circumstances suggesting that they had been extrajudicially executed. In December an agreement to start a formal peace process was signed. The principal remaining guerrilla organizations, including the majority faction of the ELN, the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, and the Ejército Popular de Liberación (EPL), Popular Liberation Army, maintained their campaigns of armed opposition throughout the year. In June Congress approved a law regulating states of emergency. The law allows the security forces to carry out arrests and raids without warrant and gives the government powers to impose press censorship, restrict the right to strike, redefine crimes, increase sentences and modify penal procedures. The state of "internal commotion" introduced in November 1992 was lifted in August. However, most of the emergency measures were extended for a further 90 days. Many measures introduced by the government under the state of "internal commotion" were incorporated in a Public Order Bill presented to Congress for conversion into permanent legislation. The bill, which gives broad powers to the government to deal with public order issues, was passed by Congress in December. In November Congress approved a bill designed to penalize those responsible for "disappearances" with sentences of up to 30 years' imprisonment. It had not become law by the end of the year. Intense counter-insurgency activities continued in several areas of the country, particularly the central Magdalena Medio region and the departments of Cesar, North Santander and Meta. The armed forces and paramilitary groups operating under their command or with their support continued to commit extensive human rights violations, including torture, extrajudicial executions and "disappearances". Growing numbers of extrajudicial executions and "disappearances" were attributed to the army's counter-insurgency Mobile Brigades. In January several men from San José del Tarra, North Santander department, were detained by troops from Mobile Brigade No. 2. Most were released after a few hours in custody, during which they were tortured, but four detainees - Ramón Villegas, Gustavo Coronel, Luis Alfonso Ascanio and Wilson Quintero - were not released. The military denied having detained them. Days later, the local Mobile Brigade commander handed over to the police several bodies of men he claimed had been "killed in combat". Three were identified as Gustavo Coronel, Wilson Quintero and Luis Alfonso Ascanio. Several days later, 15-year-old Luis Ernesto Ascanio "disappeared" as he was returning home. In May his body was identified among 14 that were exhumed from the cemetery in the nearby town of Ocaña. Another of the bodies exhumed was believed to be that of Ramón Villegas. Members of human rights organizations were again repeatedly threatened and publicly accused by senior military commanders of links with guerrilla organizations, although no evidence was provided to back the allegations. The government failed to take action to prevent or punish such accusations, which appeared clearly to place those targeted at risk of human rights violations. Members of the Magdalena Medio-based Regional Human Rights Committee (CREDHOS) were threatened by the military in July after the committee's lawyers had denounced the torture of political prisoners held by the army's Nueva Granada Battalion in Barrancabermeja. In December Jesús Montoya, a human rights lawyer, was shot dead by gunmen in Cali. Jesús Montoya worked with the Comité de Solidaridad con Presos Políticos (CSPP), Political Prisoners' Solidarity Committee, and also represented a group of trade unionists claiming compensation for their arbitrary arrest and torture by the army in 1990. Another of the trade unionists' lawyers, Alirio de Jesús Pedraza Becerra, "disappeared" in July 1990. His whereabouts remained unknown (see Amnesty International Reports 1991 and 1993). Members of legal left-wing political parties continued to be targets for political killings. José Miller Chacón, a member of the Executive Committee of the Partido Comunista Colombiana (PCC), Colombian Communist Party, was shot dead by unidentified men in Bogot , the capital, in November. In July leaders of the PCC and the Patriotic Union (UP) had complained to the Attorney General about what they alleged was a military operation to murder UP and PCC leaders, including José Miller Chacón. Amnesty International knew of no investigation into the complaint. The majority of victims of extrajudicial execution were people with no known political connections. In June troops attached to the army's V Brigade broke into the home of Marlene Varón Espinosa as she slept with her three young children and a friend. The soldiers allegedly beat Marlene Varón to death when she failed to answer questions about the whereabouts of alleged guerrillas. Members of indigenous communities continued to be targeted by both government forces and some guerrilla organizations. In April soldiers from the army's La Popa Battalion pursued three armed men to the Arsario indigenous community of Maracaso in the Sierra Nevada mountains. The soldiers shot at Gregorio Nieves and three other Indians who were working in the fields, wounding Gregorio Nieves; they then shot him through the head at point-blank range. The other three Indians were interrogated and tortured by the soldiers before being released. Paramilitary forces, declared illegal by the government in 1989, continued to commit widespread human rights violations in several areas of the country. Scores of peasant farmers were threatened with death, extrajudicially executed or "disappeared" at the hands of army and paramilitary forces in the municipalities of Carmen and San Vicente de Chucurí in the central Magdalena Medio region. In May a bus travelling between El Carmen and San Vicente de Chucurí was stopped at a road-block mounted by paramilitary forces, who seized Ramiro Pinto Ladino, a peasant farmer. His dead body was found days later. Over 120 people "disappeared" while in the custody of the security forces or their paramilitary allies. In April Delio Vargas, a member of the UP and president of a regional human rights group, "disappeared" after being abducted from a street in Villavicencio, Meta department. A Public Ministry investigation led to the arrest of the driver of the vehicle used in the abduction, who was identified as a retired army sergeant working for an army intelligence unit in Villavicencio. He was not known to have been tried by the end of the year. The killing of so-called "disposables" by "death squads" with links to the National Police continued in many cities and towns. In September a senior council official in Cali accused the police of murdering 12 youths in a three-month period in an attempt to undermine a council initiative to disarm and rehabilitate members of juvenile street gangs. The official subsequently received death threats. In August posters appeared in Bogot inviting the public, in the name of "industrialists, shopkeepers and civic organizations", to attend the funerals of "delinquents". Miguel Angel Martínez, a popular poet who lived on the streets of Bogot , was beaten to death by police officers in September. Although a number of police agents were dismissed from service for their involvement in "social cleansing" killings, little progress was made in bringing those responsible to justice. Anti-terrorist legislation, ostensibly introduced to combat drug-trafficking offences and insurgent forces, was increasingly used to suppress social protest. In February, 13 workers from the state-owned telecommunications company Telecom were charged with terrorist offences in connection with a strike in April 1992. In April a further three were charged. In October the workers were released on bail when the Appeals Court modified the charges of "terrorism" to "disruption of telecommunications", an offence under the ordinary penal code. Some political detainees were tortured by the security forces. Ramón Pérez Vargas was detained in November with two other men in Cúcuta, North Santander department, by army personnel. The three men were taken to the outskirts of Cúcuta where they were interrogated and tortured by being beaten on the head and testicles and nearly drowned in an irrigation canal. One of the detainees, Gerardo Lievano García, died as a result. Military officials denied that the three were in detention. Ramón Pérez was released without charge two days later. In April the Procurator General reported that the Public Ministry had received 2,618 complaints of human rights violations by state agents during 1992, affecting 3,099 people. The complaints covered 74 massacres, 403 homicides and 370 reported "disappearances". In some cases investigations led to disciplinary measures. The Procurator General's office announced in April that an army corporal, four soldiers and two civilians were under investigation for the killing of 17 people who were forced off a bus and shot dead near Los Uvos, Bolívar municipality, Cauca department, in April 1991. Four members of a counter-insurgency patrol of the José Hilario López Battalion had confessed to participating in the massacre. However, in other cases those implicated in serious human rights violations were exonerated despite strong evidence of culpability. In July the Procurator Delegate for Human Rights dropped charges against two police officers, including the local police commander, implicated in the murder of 20 Paez Indians in Caloto, Cauca department, in December 1991. Eye-witnesses had testified that a group of approximately 18 police agents, including the commander, had carried out the killing, with a number of civilian gunmen. Rafael Barrios, a lawyer acting for the relatives of the victims, received repeated death threats (see Amnesty International Report 1993). In at least one case, the failure of the Public Ministry to bring to justice those responsible for human rights violations led to further abuses. In April the Procurator General overturned the decision of the Procurator Delegate to the Armed Forces to seek the dismissal of three army officers, including Lieutenant Colonel Luis Felipe Becerra Bohórquez, for their part in a series of massacres in Urab , Antioquia department, in 1988 (see Amnesty International Reports1988, 1992 and 1993). In October troops from the Palacé Battalion under the command of Lt Colonel Becerra killed 13 peasant farmers in the community of El Bosque, municipality of Riofrío, Valle de Cauca department. Eye-witnesses said that a group of 20 armed and uniformed men tortured and shot seven members of the Ladino family, five members of the Molina family and Hugo Cedeño. The victims, whose ages ranged from 15 to 75, included five women, one of whom, Carmen Emilia Ladino, was a Gregorian nun. Lt Colonel Becerra claimed the victims were ELN guerrillas who had died in a confrontation with his troops. This version was soon discredited by judicial investigators who established that the victims were unarmed peasant farmers. In November the government announced that Lt Colonel Becerra had been discharged from the army. Armed opposition groups were responsible for grave human rights abuses. In March the ELN deliberately killed Eustorgio Colmenares Baptista, director of La Opinión newspaper in Cúcuta. In a communique the ELN said it was responsible for the killing and criticized the newspaper's coverage of counter-insurgency actions. The ELN also admitted responsibility for the killing of Liberal Party Senator Dario Londoño Cardona in Medellín in November. Senator Londoño had promoted the executive's Public Order Bill in Congress. Yesid Ducuara Villabon, a leader of the Guaip Centro Indigenous community in Coyaima, Tolima department, was shot dead by FARC guerrillas in March. epl guerrillas murdered Javier Cirujano Arjona, parish priest of San Jacinto in Bolívar department. The EPL said they had killed the priest for "collaborating with paramilitary groups". The priest's body was found in July. Former members of a faction of the EPL guerrilla organization which demobilized in 1991 and set up a new political group were particular targets for assassination in the Urab region of Antioquia department, apparently as a result of conflict with the faction of the EPL which continued in armed opposition. Trade union leader Jesús Alirio Guevara was abducted and killed by EPL guerrillas in Apartadó, Urab , in January. The EPL claimed that they killed him because he had links with civilian militia accused of a series of massacres in the area. Amnesty International condemned abuses by armed opposition groups, including deliberate and arbitrary killings. Amnesty International repeatedly appealed to the government to ensure full and impartial investigations into all reported extrajudicial executions and "disappearances" and torture cases and called for those responsible to be brought to justice. It continued to urge the government to dismantle paramilitary forces and to take measures to ensure that human rights monitors and others were able to carry out their legitimate activities in safety. In oral statements to the UN Commission on Human Rights in March, to the UN Sub-Commission on the Prevention of Discrimination and the Protection of Minorities in August, and to the Sub-Commission's Working Group on Indigenous Populations in July, Amnesty International included reference to its concerns about continuing human rights violations in Colombia.
