Colombia: "Enough is enough!": Repression of human rights defenders

In January and February this year Colombian paramilitary forces unleashed a spate of attacks against Colombian human rights defenders. In just four days four people were abducted and at least three were killed. In contrast to the past, paramilitary forces publicly acknowledged responsibility for the abductions, but not the killings, and claimed that the human rights defenders were being held as 'prisoners of war'. At the same time, they openly declared their intention to 'purge' human rights organizations of what they claimed were 'guerrilla infiltrators'. On 28 January, Jairo Bedoya, Olga Rodas, Jorge Salazar and Claudia Tamayo, four Colombian human rights defenders, were abducted by paramilitaries from the office of their organization in Medellín, Antioquia department. On 8 February the two women, Olga Rodas and Claudia Tamayo were released. Before their release Carlos Castaño, head of the national paramilitary organization Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC), United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia, told them personally that he intended to continue his campaign against human rights organizations. Jairo Bedoya and Jorge Salazar remain hostage. On 30 January, Everardo de Jesús Puertas and Julio Ernesto González were shot dead by two armed men and a woman who picked them out from the passengers travelling on a bus. Everardo de Jesús Puertas and Julio Ernesto worked for the Comité de Solidaridad con los Presos Políticos (CSPP), Committee of Solidarity with Political Prisoners, which closed its offices shortly after the killings for security reasons. On 1 February, Carlos Castaño openly threatened all Colombian human rights defenders, saying 'enough is enough!'...'The [recent] abductions ... mark the beginning of a regrettable, but inevitable stage in the conflict... we call for a purge of guerrillas from [human rights] organizations, a call extended to the Unidad de Derechos Humanos de la Fiscalía, Human Rights Unit of the Attorney General's Office." These latest paramilitary threats coincided with renewed harassment and threats against human rights defenders. Amnesty International strongly condemns these latest attacks against human rights defenders. The organization welcomes a recent pledge by President Andrés Pastrana on 16 February to protect human rights defenders, but stresses the need to ensure the fulfilment of previous pledges to protect human rights workers, to implement respective recommendations by the United Nations and to honour its international human rights obligations. Unless the Colombian authorities find the necessary political will to prevent such human rights violations, human rights defenders will continue to be at serious risk. One measure of the authorities willingness to protect members of human rights organizations would be the prompt and thorough investigation of the threats and violations against them, another would be the implementation of effective steps to curb paramilitary activity and dismantle paramilitary groups. Further measures are recommended at the end of this report. Enough is enough! The Colombian authorities and the international community must ensure full implementation of all the necessary steps to protect human rights defenders if further attacks are to be averted.