IACHR CONDEMNS CONTINUED THREATS AND MURDERS DIRECTED AGAINST HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS AND THEIR FAMIL

[Judi Lynn]

IACHR CONDEMNS CONTINUED THREATS AND MURDERS DIRECTED AGAINST HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS AND THEIR FAMILIES IN COLOMBIA

Washington, D.C., March 7, 2011—The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) deplores the continuing situation of threats, harassment, and murders of family members of María del Socorro Mosquera Londoño and Mery Naranjo Jiménez, human rights defenders in Colombia. Both women have been beneficiaries of IACHR precautionary measures since 2004 and of provisional measures issued by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights since 2006, without the State having adopted effective measures for protection. This is part of a pattern of persecution and lack of protection being faced by these human rights defenders in the Comuna 13 area of Medellín, Colombia.

María del Socorro Mosquera Londoño and Mery Naranjo Jiménez are human rights defenders and community leaders who have carried out a sustained effort to denounce agents of the State for their alleged participation in grave human rights violations against the people of Comuna 13 in Medellín. Based on the threats received and the context of violence in Comuna 13, the IACHR granted precautionary measures on October 22, 2004, to protect the life and physical integrity of María del Socorro Mosquera Londoño, Mery Naranjo Jiménez, and the latter woman's family members. With the acts of harassment and aggression continuing, the Commission asked the Inter-American Court for provisional measures, which were granted for these same beneficiaries on July 5, 2006.

Despite these measures being in force, three relatives of both defenders have been killed. Two of them were beneficiaries of the provisional measures: Javier Augusto Torres Durán, Mery Naranjo's son-in-law; and her 16-year-old son, Sebastián Naranjo Jiménez. They were killed on December 2, 2007, and October 4, 2010, respectively. In addition, on February 1, 2011, Socorro Mosquera's 14-year-old grandson, Lubin Alfonso Villa Mosquera, was killed. Meanwhile, the threats and acts of harassment continue, including an illegal search of Mery Naranjo's house in August 2010. Marlon Daniel Herrera Mosquera, who is Socorro Mosquera's son, has also been physically attacked with blows, kicks, and punches.

The Inter-American Commission considers it extremely serious that the State of Colombia has not provided effective protection measures despite having had full knowledge, at least since 2004, of the situation of risk faced by these defenders and their families, and despite the provisional measures ordered by the Inter-American Court.

More:
http://cidh.org/Comunicados/English/2011/18-11eng.htm

[Judi Lynn]

1. Torture victim seeks healing through art

Torture victim seeks healing through art
By Steph Greegor
Published: Wednesday, February 23, 2011 8:59 PM EST

In 1982, Hector Aristizabal wasn’t watching the premiere of Late Night With David Letterman or talking about U.S. oil embargos on Libyan oil. He was enduring bouts of electricity coursing through his body and beatings that left him ragged.

“They didn’t allow me to sleep. They would hang me from my hands from the ceiling,” he said of his torturers. “They used wire boarding, stress procedures and psychological torture.”

Aristizabal said his torturers were members of the Colombian Army who had kidnapped him from his home in the belief that, because he was a student at the public university, he was a communist.

They also captured and threatened to kill his brother, but both escaped, Aristizabal said. But in 1999, his brother was kidnapped again, this time by paramilitary death squads who tortured him for 10 days, then shot him in the head.

More:
http://www.theotherpaper.com/articles/2011/02/23/arts/doc4d65b07838a6e057441373.txt