Colombia Urgent Action: Black Eagle Death Threats in Santander – Double Emergency

[Judi Lynn]

Colombia Urgent Action: Black Eagle Death Threats in Santander – Double Emergency

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FROM AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
PUBLIC AI Index: AMR 23/019/2008 20 June 2008
UA 180/08 Fear for safety/Death Threats COLOMBIA

César Plazas (m) ]
David Florez (m) ]
Nohora Villamizar (f)
Fernando Porras (m) ] trade unionists
Javier Correa (m) ]
Martha Cecilia Díaz (f) ]
César Tamayo (m) ]
Belcy Rincón (f) ]

William Rivera (m) ]
Gustavo Mendoza (m) ] social activists and human rights defenders
Carolina Rubio (f) ]

A paramilitary group has threatened to kill the trade unionists and social activists named above who live or work in the city of Bucaramanga, Santander Department. Their lives may be in danger.

On 19 June unknown men left a letter containing death threats in an envelope at the housing complex where trade unionist Belcy Rincón lives in the municipality of Floridablanca, Santander Department. Her home and mobile telephone numbers were written on the envelope, as well as her address. The letter accused Belcy Rincón’s trade union, Sintraclínicas, which represents health workers, of being “a burrow of guerrillas” (una madriguera de guerrilleros). The letter also said that the union’s members would soon be “exterminated like cockroaches” (pronto serán exterminados como cucarachas). The death threat was signed by the Black Eagles (Águilas Negras) paramilitary group.

On 11 June a man on a motorbike stopped in front of the house of César Tamayo, president of the peasant farmers’ trade union Asociación Agraria de Santander, Agrarian Association of Santander. When Tamayo’s 11-year-old son answered the door, the man, his face hidden by his helmet, handed him an envelope containing an announcement of the death of César Tamayo and the others named above, apart from Belcy Rincón. Beside each name there was a cross.

The note declared them to be military targets and accused them of being guerrillas and of promoting antipatriotic marches against “decent people who produce wealth in the city and in the countryside” (la gente de bien que produce riqueza en la ciudad y el campo). The note also read, “a Colombia free of guerrillas - yes! NGOs, defenders of narco-guerrilas, NO! RIP!” (Colombia libre de guerrilleros…Sí, ONGs Defensoras de losNarcoterroristas NO! QEPD!). This death threat was also signed by the Black Eagles.

For the last three months trade unions and human rights NGOs in Bucaramanga have been organizing and taking part in demonstrations supporting workers’ rights. They have also been publicly condemning the activities of the Black Eagles (Águilas Negras) in Santander Department. This has made them targets of paramilitary death threats. For more information on paramilitary death threats against trade unionist and social activists in Bucaramanga, see UA 115/08, AMR 23/014/2008, 30 April 2008.

More:
http://www.labournet.net/world/0806/colomb1.html

Hard to believe there are some pieces of filth who claim the death squads have all been deactivated, isn't it?