Colombia human rights update January 2022 1 Feb 2022

[Judi Lynn]

. . .

Below is JFC’s monthly update on human rights abuses in Colombia.

N.B. This article does not claim to provide a definitive list of all human rights violations committed in Colombia. Various others are likely to have been committed during the period.

2 January – Fighting between rival armed groups in Arauca, eastern Colombia, left 27 people dead, some of whom belonged to the groups involved. Victims also reportedly included civilians who had been forced from their homes and killed. At least 52 families were forcibly displaced by the situation. Opposition congress members and human rights organisations called for an urgent humanitarian response to the security crisis.

3 January – After Colombia registered 96 massacres in 2021, the first of 2022 claimed the lives of three Venezuelan nationals in Jamundí, department of Valle del Cauca. The men were construction workers who had lived in the area for around five years. According to Colombian senator Gustavo Bolívar, it is the 241st massacre committed in Colombia since President Iván Duque took office in August 2018.

6 January – The year’s second massacre was carried out in Maní in the department of Casanare. The victims were identified as Vicente Soto Berrío, his 17-year-old son Gustavo Soto Chaparro and Alfonso Sandoval. Armed assailants entered the Soto family home and, without saying anything, attacked the inhabitants. A fourth person was injured.

8 January – Three people, including a pregnant woman and a teenager, were killed in the third massacre of 2022, carried out in the Zona Bananera in northern Colombia’s Magdalena region. Armed assailants arrived at a home in the village of El Salón and attacked those inside. The victims were named as Jorge Hernández, Patricia de Armas Gallardo, who was pregnant, and 17-year-old William Hernández. The National Ombudsman previously issued a warning for the Zona Bananera over threats to environmental activists campaigning against river pollution and land erosion, as well as pressure on local residents to sell their homes.

8 January – The day’s second massacre, and the fourth of 2022, was carried out in Colón Genova in Nariño, southern Colombia. In the village of Villanueva, three people were killed in the central park after armed assailants entered the area and began shooting indiscriminately. At least four others were injured. The young victims were named as Ricardo Andrade Bravo, 22 years old, Arnold Montero Gallardo, 19, and Esteban Castillo Ordoñez, 21.

More:
https://justiceforcolombia.org/news/colombia-human-rights-update-january-2022/

[Judi Lynn]

1. One entry in the OP illustrates how Colombian death squads handle leftist politicians:

26 January – New threats signed by a group calling itself the Black Eagles targeted the pro-peace opposition senators Gustavo Petro, who is polling strongly ahead of this year’s presidential election, and Iván Cepeda, as well as judges at the JEP transitional justice court and the leader of the Comunes/FARC political party, Rodrigo Londoño. The threat said ‘we will find you wherever you hide in any part of national territory and it doesn’t matter how many bodyguards you have, no protection scheme will help you.’ The threat also named the former governor of Córdoba, Benito Osorio, and convicted paramilitary leader Salvatore Mancuso, both of whom are providing testimony to the JEP over historic collusion between business leaders and paramilitaries. The latest threat comes two months after another Black Eagles missive named Cepeda and other senators, human rights defenders and trade unionists, which was condemned by the TUC and other groups.

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Colombia: Ivan Cepeda's Struggle Against History
Country:

Author:
author image
Stephen Franklin



Ivan Cepeda at his desk in his government office. Image by Stephen Franklin. Colombia, 2013.
Blood unjustly spilled is not forgotten in Colombia.


Ivan Cepeda has lived much of his life doing exactly this—speaking out loudly and bravely about killers not held accountable As a consequence, he can also testify to the dangers that he and others face for standing up or just being in the way "I'm permanently threatened," Cepeda says. "I've been threatened since I can remember."

Sometimes, however, the danger seems more imminent, and that was the case last April when Human Rights Watch and others appealed to Colombia's president to make sure Cepeda doesn't fall victim amid a slew of threats. A round of threats from a shady criminal group in early August targeted Cepeda, leftist politicians, a number of union leaders, human rights activists and members of a law firm closely linked to union and human rights groups.

Yet despite the threats, he continues, denouncing injustice and raising questions about former President Alvaro Uribe's alleged links with right-wing paramilitary groups.

. . .

Ivan Cepeda joined the long line of survivors in 1994 with the assassination of his father, Manuel Cepeda, a leading leftist senator in Colombia. His father was a member of the Union Patriotica, a political party that saw over 2,000 of its members assassinated and hundreds more disappear in the 1990s.

More:
https://pulitzercenter.org/stories/colombia-ivan-cepedas-struggle-against-history

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From EFE, Spain's prominent newspaper:

By: EFE • Colombia.com

Senator Manuel Cepeda is honored 25 years after losing his life
One of the murders, to date unsolved like the vast majority, has been that of Manuel Cepeda.
Update •Fri, 09 / Aug / 2019 6:23 pm



25th anniversary of the death of Manuel Cepeda. Photo: Twitter

Relatives, relatives and supporters paid tribute this Friday to the life and legacy of Colombian leftist senator Manuel Cepeda, assassinated on August 9, 1994 and whose crime, which is part of the extermination of the Patriotic Union, is still unknown.

"The fight began since my father was murdered, it has been a battle that my family, the lawyers and all the victims of the extermination of the Patriotic Union have faced. We want to be able to remove the mask from my father's murderers," said his son. , also senator Iván Cepeda, to Efe during the tribute held at the Central Cemetery of Bogotá.

For this reason, he explained that they have requested that the "Cepeda Case" be assumed by the Special Justice for Peace (JEP), the backbone of the agreement signed by the Government and the now demobilized FARC guerrilla to judge the crimes committed during the conflict. armed.

Manuel Cepeda, in addition to being a political leader, was a lawyer and journalist, he was part of the Communist Party (PCC) and the Patriotic Union (UP), which led him to become one of the greatest leaders of the Colombian left in the 1990s. .

For Iván Cepeda, the leaders of the Patriotic Union gave a lesson in democracy, since they could have chosen to take up arms but preferred to advance for peace in democratic settings despite the extermination to which they were subjected.

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) issued a ruling on May 26, 2010 that considers the Colombian State guilty for the participation of its agents in the death of the UP leader and demanded that it compensate his family, carry out a documentary in homage to Cepeda and acknowledge in a public act his guilt for the crime.

More:
https://www.colombia.com/actualidad/politica/homenajean-al-senador-manuel-cepeda-25-anos-despues-de-perder-su-vida-237643
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Interesting Petro article I missed earlier. Please note the predictable caption by Reuters under the Reuters photo:

Cuban Assassin 'Hired to Kill Colombia's Petro and Timochenko'



The Cuban claims he was hired by a right-wing Colombian group to assassinate
progressive presidential candidate Gustavo Petro (pictured). | Photo: Reuters

Published 4 May 2018

"I came to carry out attacks in Colombia against the Embassy of Cuba in Bogota, the (FARC) leader Timochenko and Gusavo Petro," Gutierrez said.

A Cuban named Raul Gutierrez claims he was hired by a right-wing Colombian group to assassinate progressive presidential candidate GustavoRaul Gutierrez Petro and the leader of the Revolutionary Alternative Forces of the Commons (FARC), Rodrigo 'Timochenko' Londoño.

Gutierrez, who had been based in the United States, had planned to carry out an attack on the Cuban Embassy in Colombia.

. . .

Beyond saying that it was a "far-right group," Gutierrez did not specify exactly who hired him, although he did say he had belonged to a group known as the Movimiento Justiciero 51, a criminal collective of Cubans operating out of Florida in the United States.

More:
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Cuban-Assassin-Hired-to-Kill-Colombias-Petro-and-Timochenko-20180504-0013.html

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More on the Cuban-American hit man who planned to murder Gustavo Petro:



Cuban man says he plotted to attack ‘extreme left’ in Colombia
Frank CardonaMay 5, 2018

Raul Gutierrez (Image: El Espectador)

A Cuban man who was Gutierrez confirmed he being Muslim, but said he feigned having ISIS sympathies in order to obtain more resources for attacks against the Cuban embassy, presidential candidate Gustavo Petro and the leader of demobilized FARC guerrillas, Rodrigo Londoño.

“I don’t belong to the Islamic State. I wasn’t going to attack people in the United States. I was going to attack the Cuban embassy,” Gutierrez told W Radio. The suspect said the plot to kill the leftist targets is still in running despite his arrest.

The claim he wanted to attack American diplomats has been promoted by the US government “so they can intervene in Colombia,” Gutierrez said.arrested by police in Colombia on charges he sought to attack US diplomats in March told local media his targets were the Cuban embassy and prominent leftists.

“I don’t belong to the Islamic State. I wasn’t going to attack people in the United States. I was going to attack the Cuban embassy,” Gutierrez told W Radio. The suspect said the plot to kill the leftist targets is still in running despite his arrest.

The claim he wanted to attack American diplomats has been promoted by the US government “so they can intervene in Colombia,” Gutierrez said.

More:
https://colombiareports.com/amp/cuban-man-says-he-plotted-to-attack-extreme-left-in-colombia/

[Judi Lynn]

2. Memory refresher regarding the "Black Eagles":

Black Eagles
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This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in Spanish.
(February 2017) Click [show] for important translation instructions.

Origins
The Black Eagles first appeared in the Norte de Santander area in 2006.[3] On 18 October 2006, President Álvaro Uribe openly ordered their detention.[4] The government ordered the creation of a new Search Bloc against the Black Eagles and classified them as a gang of former paramilitaries.[5]

The Black Eagles are one of a number of groups formed following the demilitarisation of the AUC, and are said to be closely linked with the Usuga Clan drug cartel and right-wing neo-paramilitary group.[6]

More:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Eagles

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BBC article published in Spanish, Google translated:

What or who are the feared Black Eagles and why do the authorities in Colombia say that they do not exist?
Natalio Cosoy (@nataliocosoy)
BBC World, Bogota
17 April 2017

These are fragments of just three of dozens of threatening pamphlets, all signed by the Black Eagles, which appear throughout almost all of Colombia:

"We know where I lived (sic) that hifueputa (sic) has been declared a military target... Hifueputa (sic) has a week to leave cuaca (sic, it means Cauca) because if we don't kill him."

"Servile journalists of Castrochavism know that they find this camouflaged in all the media that serve a peace process where the treacherous Santos is handing over the country to the FARC" (everything is in capital letters in the original) .

"Death sentence for guerrillas, farucos (referring to the FARC) , their time is running out, they leave or they die. The following hptas (sic) are declared military objectives (sic) together with their families and collaborators" (all in capital letters in the original and with a list of organizations and names at the end of the text) .

The name Águilas Negras, which has Nazi reminiscences (sometimes they use swastikas in their threats), strikes fear and that is the objective .

More:
https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-america-latina-39583477