Colombia activists denounce rights violations

[Judi Lynn]

Colombia activists denounce rights violations
Colombian activists say human rights violations are continuing despite President Santos' pacifist image.
Eleanor O'Hagan Last updated: 24 May 2014 09:58


Last month, three Colombian activists visited the UK to talk about the human rights situation in Colombia with British and Irish politicians. Their visit came at a crucial time. The activists had just learned that paramilitaries had placed bounties on their heads.

"It becomes normal," said one of the activists, 27-year-old David Florez, spokesperson for the Patriotic March, Colombia's biggest grassroots movement. In February, a death threat was sent to members of the Patriotic March and opposition senators by the paramilitary cell, Urban Commandos-Black Eagles. These paramilitaries are known for following through on the threats they issue. A UN report in 2012 estimated that Colombian paramilitaries have "disappeared" nearly 20,000 people.

Florez, along with 44-year-old Angel Torres, an organiser in one of Colombia's most militarised regions and Olga Quintero, treasurer of the peasant farmer group, Ascamcat, is trying to mobilise against the selling of peasant land to multinational companies, privatisation of public service and regular human rights abuses. According to Human Rights Watch, Colombia has the worst human rights record in the Western Hemisphere.

Threats to activists

Paramilitaries are one of the greatest threat to activists, but state forces are not far behind. According to the Colombian Commission of Jurists, public functionaries are implicated in 97 percent of forced disappearances. Colombian peasants (or "campesinos&quot frequently talk about the relationship between the army and paramilitaries. The extent of that relationship is disputed by experts, but a 2010 Human Rights Watch study found links between the army and paramilitaries in every region that the authors visited.

More:
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/05/colombia-activists-denounce-rights-violations-20145247301869837.html

(My emphasis.)

[SamKnause]

1. What horrible policy for President Obama to sign a trade

deal with Colombia.

Does it say something about what he really thinks of unions ????

I try to judge people by their actions.