Colombia: OAS rights commission condemns murder of indigenous leader

[Judi Lynn]

Colombia: OAS rights commission condemns murder of indigenous leader

Submitted by WW4 Report on Tue, 08/03/2010 - 00:04. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) on Aug. 2 issued a statement strongly condemning the murder of Colombian indigenous leader Luis Alfredo Socarras Pimienta. The IACHR, an autonomous body of the Organization of American States (OAS), "urges the State of Colombia to investigate the crime committed against the indigenous leader Socarras Pimienta and to prosecute and punish those who perpetrated and planned the crime."

The statement adds that "the IACHR also urges the State to attend to the needs for protection and security of those who defend the rights of the indigenous peoples of Colombia, to ensure that crimes such as this one do not happen again."

Socarras was killed on July 27 in Riohacha, on the Caribbean coast. The murder was reportedly committed by a hit-man, who shot him in the doorway of his house before fleeing. An advocate for the rights of the Wayuu people, Socarras led numerous protests over the past year, and ran in two elections for mayor of Manaure municipality with the Polo Democratico Alternativo. A dentist by trade, he organized dental-care campaigns for communities in the Guajira Peninsula.

http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/11119-oas-body-condemns-murder-of-indigenous-leader.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. Colombia: unionist threatened, campesino leader seized

Colombia: unionist threatened, campesino leader seized

Submitted by Weekly News Update on Tue, 08/03/2010 - 09:40. Colombian union sources report that Alejandro Betancur, president of the Union of Mining Industry Workers (SINTRAMINEROS) in the northwestern department of Antioquia, received a death threat by telephone on July 26 in connection with his union activities. According to Carlos Julio, president of Colombia's Unitary Workers Central (CUT), Betancur was threatened because of his efforts on behalf of about 100 miners employed by companies belonging to Industrial Hullera, which is now in liquidation. The dispute, which has gone on for 13 years, concerns labor rights and pensions. (El Mundo, Medellín, July 31; Adital, Brazil, July 29)

Also in Antioquia, the Campesino Association of the Lower Cauca (ASOCBAC) charged on July 29 that José Alcides Ochoa, president of the Communal Action group in the village of El Rayo in Tarazá municipality, was illegally detained that morning by troops from the 25th Mobile Brigade of the army's Seventh Division. ASOCBAC called for the Public Ministry to locate Alcides Ochoa immediately and to start an investigation into the detention. The group is also asking for activists to write to Colombian president Álvaro Uribe Vélez ([e-mail] ), president elect Francisco Santos ([e-mail] ) and other officials to demand an end to human rights abuses by the 25th Mobile Brigade and other military units. (ASOCBAC urgent action, July 29 via Colombia Indymedia; El Mundo, July 31)

http://ww4report.com/node/8906