Colombia Support Network

(Translated by Steve Cagan,  a CSN translator )

June 1st. On June 1st, 2006, between 10 and 10:30 AM, as he was traveling in an intermunicipal bus in El Hato in the rural neighborhood of La Margaritas, at Usme 5, the peasant Elibert Poveda V., President of the Agricultural Workers¹ Union of the region of Sumapaz , SINATRAPAZ, was taken off by three hooded subjects, among whom was a lieutenant, who said they were troops of the Sumapaz Batallion 39 of the Army and showed him an arrest warrant. Source: FENSUAGRO ( Federation of Agricultural Workers)

Chaparral Rejects Murder of Community Leader. Within the rural communities of the municipality of El Chaparral, Tolima, there is a growing rejection of the confusing events around the death of the President of the Community Action Board of the rural neighborhood of Aguas Claras and leader of the forest warden families, Tiberio García Cuéllar, who was murdered last Sunday, apparently by troops belonging to the Counter-guerrilla Battalion 31, "Sabastián de Belalcázar," which is part of the Reaction Forice of the Fifth Division of the Army. Source: Día a Día de ANDAS ( National Union Asociation)

Harassment of a family member of  Franklin Castañeda Villacob, member of the Foundation Committee of Solidarity with Political Prisoners, Atlántico Section.

June 2nd. The Army impacts populated zones and carries out arbitrary detentions in Catatumbo. The Peasant Association of Catatumbo, ASCAMCAT, charged that on May 16 at 9:30 AM troops of the Special Plan Energy and Road Battalion No. 10, belonging to the 30th Brigade of the National Army, fired mortars in the rural neighborhood La Cristilina, in the community of El Aserrío (in Teorama, Norte de Santander). The mortars, around eleven, fell in the road that connects this neighborhood with El Aserrío. At his moment, there were children moving along the road. In the same way, on Wednesday, May 17, at 10:30 AM, Army troops opened fire again with mortars towards the place known as Filo Guamo (of the neighborhood La Cristilina); they began to fall on the farms of the area. The population exposed to danger, between habitants of the farms and students were around 55 persons. Source; día a día de Andas

June 3rd. On June 3rd, in Pereira (Risaralda) 45 persons were detained in a National Police operation called "Taking the municipality of Dosquebradas." The operation began in the early hours in that municipality, with close to 100 police men and women, with specialized units that carried out searches, control check-points, and creating a security presence in strategic locations in Dosquebradas, capturing 42 people. Thirty of them were captured in the act, and 12 had arrest warrants for various offenses. According to El Tiempo, in this operation 100 people were arrested, 22 of them in Pereira. "This is the main outcome of the Œtaking¹ of Risaralda, carried out by the police in order to arrest individuals wanted for various offenses. They also confiscated drugs, weapons and pirated compact discs." Source: CCEE

In the morning hours in the rural neighborhood of Santa Lucía, in the jurisdiction of the municipality of Puerto Rico (Meta), untis of the antinarcotics police and untis of army batallion Heros of Arauca detained Rusbel Pérez Gil, Miller Amín Pérez Gil, Luz Angela Avila Tafur and her son, a minor of 4 years of age. Source: Human Rights Commission of the sector of the Guejar River.
June 4th: Repudiation of the death threat against Teresa Muñoz Lopera, Leader of the PDA. The Alternative Deicratic Pole (Polo Democrático Alternativo, PDA) of Antioquia, expresses its strongest rejection of the death threat against Teresa  Muñoz Lopera, a leader of the Antioquia PDA, which is set within the framework of a campaign of death threats against several of our militants and other directors of community groups, students, public university professors and organizations that defend human rights. Source: Día de Día de Andas

June 5th. On June 5th 2006, Gerardo González and his wife, as well as other people who had  charges brought against them at the Headquarters of the Antioquia Prosecutor  that a group of paramilitary headed by a subject named Jorge Ivan Alzate Ramírez‹known by the alias of Claudio Redondo, and someone who has made known that he works with the security bodies of the State, such as La Sijin and El Guala‹had been persecuting them with threatening calls, watching their homes and that they had even had a Ford Blanca pickup come to their house with tinted windows and with three heavily armed subjects inside. Despite their charges and their request that the Prosecutor¹s office take measures to guarantee the lives of these people, no action has been taken. In the light of these facts, Gerardo González felt obliged to change houses various times, and this was also why he is located in the barrio Llanadas in the city of Medellín. Source: The Seeds of Liberty Human Rights Collective (CODEHSEL)

June 6th. Student Detained Arbitrarily. Alejandro Diaz Asprilla, a student at the University of Cundinamarca, Girardot branch was a victim of a hunt by the semi-state group ESTAD. Diaz was detained in the Girardot terminal by the mobile antiriot squadron at 6 in the evening on June 6, 2006. As far as we understand, there were no disturbances nor reasons for detaining him after searching and attacking him. The students of this university have declared that they hope not to be victims of the terrorism that this group is creating.

June 7th. 1st Because the government has not carried out the agreements arrived at with ASONAL JUDICIAL on February 28, 2006, ASONAL JUDICIAL at the national level called for a session of Permanent Assembly to be convened starting May 11, 2006 for an indefinite time, until the government carries out what was agreed upon. 2nd In the development of this session, all of the functionaries of the judicial branch of Medellín declared that they were in Permanent Assembly in the centers of the administration of justice in that city. 3rd At approximately 9:00 AM, the functionaries who were in the Veracruz Building were attacked by agents of ESMAD. The agents of this squadron, headed by sub-lieutenant Raúl Castro Meza entered the building in a violent manner, striking the functionaries, shooting gasses‹apparently teargas‹which led to the building¹s being abandoned. This caused the functionaries to move to the adjacent street, where they have been u to now. One agent of the ESMAD‹badge number 102191‹was particularly aggressive with the functionaries of the Branch. The sub-lieutenant personally launched gas directly at the people in Assembly. Source: ASONAL

In the morning hors José Isaías Mesa, identified by his citizen¹s id card # 17,287,022 from Mesetas (Meta) was detained by units belonging to the mobile brigade No. 12 which is carrying out operations in the area of Vista Hermosa, more exactly near the villages of Santo Domingo and Palmeras. He later turned up dead and with signs of torture in Granada (Meta), where he was handed over to his family for a Christian burial. There is concern in the community because, according to them, the army is operating in association with recognized paramilitaries in the sector. According to the peasants, one of them is Luis Eduardo Hernández Leyton, alias "el Tino," paramilitary commander of Vista Hermosa who was supposedly demobilized on April 12, 2006. According to some versions, during the week of June 3 to 10, 2006, a man called Alemar (nicknamed Cabezas) was murdered under the same circumstances. We will send detailed information to you later. Source: Human Rights Comision of the sector of the Guejar River.

June 9th. Peasant Leader Eliberto Poveda Freed. The National Unitary Agricultural and Cattle-raising Union Federation (Federación Nacional Sindical Unitaria
Agropecuaria­Fensuagro) made known that Eliberto Poveda V., President of the Union of Agricultural Workers of Sumapaz (SINTRAPAZ) who was detained on June 1st, 2006, accused of rebellion, was freed and left jail on June 6, 2006. This shows that the badly named "policy of democratic security" is nothing other than false Source: Día a Día de Andas

In the farm Tres Piedras, in the rural neighborhood of Chuspas, municipality of Ríonegro, a 13-year-old girl, Leidy Castillo Ascencio and her mother Maria Eugenia Ascencio, 36 years old were murdered. They were the daughter and wife of Rodolfo Castillo, Vice-president of the Agrarian Association of Santander, AsOGRAS. In the same act, his house was burned. Source: Fensuagro

June 12th. Aggression against defenders of human rights continue in Barrancabermeja and Magdalena Medio. The Regional Corporation for the Defense of Human Rights (CREDHOS) rejects and denounces before domestic and international public opinion the constant persecution of which the defenders of human rights have been victims in the city of Barrancabermeja on the part of presumed "social cleansing" groups. In recent days there has also been a proliferation of threats of leaders of people¹s organizations and the left in the port. Source: Día a día de Andas.

June 13th. En Medellín, don Gerardo González went out to make a phone call, and near his house met up with a woman who had an arepa stand. While he was talking with her they were surprised by four subjects who proceeded to shoot at them with firearms, murdering them. These events keep happening despite the complaints which have been presented to the authorities in an attempt to have urgent actions taken to guarantee the lives of these people, and at the time that in our country a process of demobilization and re-insertion of the members of the paramilitary groups is being carried out; Medellín is said to be an example of this. Source: Seeds of Liberty Human Rights Collective, CODEHSEL

At the National University of Bogotá, a threat was pasted up in various schools, among them the law school and engineering, that we take the liberty of translating next:

United Self-Defense Groups of Colombia
Carlos Castaño Bloc
To the Community

Let all the good citizens who work day by day for peace and the progress of our country receive a fraternal greeting.

Assassins traveling on a motorcycle tried to murder Alvaro Mercado (a union leader) when he was entering his house, located in Barrio Villa del Rosario in Valledupar, in the department of Cesar. He managed to save himself by taking shelter in his house. Members of the Police who came to the house managed to detain one of the assassins who was part of the group of aggressors. Hours after the event had occurred two more assassins were captured, and they were put under the control of the General prosecutor of the city of Valledupar. The same day, Tuesday, June 13, 2006, a number of armed men who were traveling in three vehicles and who the community identifies as members of paramilitary groups that operate in the area went to the house of the union leader and negotiator Estivenson Avila, located in Valledupar, asked for him and not finding him waited a while and then left. Days later, assassins who traveled on motorcycles were asking about the union leader Ruben Morrón at his house in the city of Barranquilla; this un ionist had already received death threats. Source: SINTRAMIENERGETICA
José Alirio Cardona, a contractor of the Pereira Energy Firm, has been accused of terrorism for expressing his position in opposition to the government of Alvaro Uribe Vélez. Source: SINTRAEMDES

June 14: The national headquarters of ANTHOC received the following threat which we take the liberty of transcribing:

The re-election of President Uribe who is the true leader of our sacred nation and therefore it is our obligation to collaborate with him so that everything can move forward in this country. We are informing you that we are attentive to every movement that you may make in opposition to this sacred process and we demand that you leave this country since all you do is disturb and bother our leader with your tantrums and accusations, it¹s not more than light talk.

Right now have all your leaders in our sights in every one of the departments where you have people, we¹re tired of so many false "unionists" who camouflage themselves with this story of human rights. We will be with the President as long as he considers it necessary, but not without beforehand exterminating to the last man the sons of bitches unionists and communists who exist, and then our true demobilization will take place. So that you can see that we¹re not bullshitting we¹re gicing you some of the names but these are not all of those we want to fumigate and against whom we declare toal and frontal war:
Yesit Camacho, Juan Flores, Alberto Laines, Alberto Meneses, Wilson Pérez, María Helena Tobón, Carmen Mayusa, Juan Osorio, Ediomar Botello, Luís Santana, Gladis Criado, William Vanegas, Angel Salas, Alfredo Castro, Aurelio Ladino, Antonio ger, Lus Erenia Saac, Lina Gamarra, Hector Alvis, Wilson Narvaez, Bertulfo Solarte, Nubia Fonseca, Martha Lozano, Ortalides Castro, Gaston Tesillo, Gilberto Martínes, Fernando Santamaría, Ligia Galeano, Raquel Salinas, José Merino, Ricardo Barón, Martha Ligia Castro, Carlos Bermea, Arnulfo Parra, Billy Rusbel Beltrán, Rosa Luz Palencia, Edgar Pua, Wilson, Gutiérrez, among other, since this isn¹t even half of those on their knees whom we want to fumigate.
You are our closest military objective.
On a footing of war of blood and fire
Long live the reelection of Dr. Uribe
Colombia free of communists
The armed wing of the ex-auto-defenses
Source: FCSPP

June 15th: Army troops occupy houses of peasants in Arauca and Venezuelan military torture a Colombian citizen. Humanidad Vigente (Current Humanity) accused troops of the National Army of occupying farms and dwellings of peasants and inhabitants of the rural areas of Panamá Arauca, under the pretext of the construction of an oil pipeline. On the border with Venezuela, military personnel of that country tortured a Colombian citizen in order to get him to confess to his suppose connection to the guerrillas. Source: Día día de Andas

June 16th: In the settlement named Brisas del Bosque, located in the district of Aguablanca near the Colonia Nariñense and Barrio Mojica, more than 1,200 families built improvised dwellings in the last four months. While they had meetings with functionaries of the municipal government in order to resolve the problem of shortage of housing and peacefully leaving the area where there is a projected construction of an ecological park, they were removed violently by the metropolitan police and the mobil antiriot squadron, ESMAD. People who were sleeping in the early morning of Friday, June 16, 2006, woke at 3 in the morning to confront the nightmare of hundreds of police firing gas and hitting everyone with great cruelty, knocking down their shacks with backhoes and burning houses of straw, wood and plastic sheet, with all their belongings inside. Source: FCSPP

In Montañita (Caquetá) soldiers who were passing for paramilitaries attacked, tortured, insulted and threatened Norvey Viuche Ortiz, accusing him of being a guerrilla and saying they were authorized to murder him, dress him in camouflage, and make him pass for a guerrilla. In the middle of the blows, Norbey asked them about a brother of his whom they had previously detained, and they answered that he was dead. Source: CCEE

At 11 in the morning, in the rural neighborhood of Alto del Oso, in the municipality of Restrepo (Valle) Esperanza Mutis, deputy treasurer of the executive board of AMUC (Asociación Municipal de Usuarios Campesinos‹Municipal Association of Peasant Landholders) was murdered. A man dressed in straw hat and with his face covered with a handkerchief approached her and shot her several times in the chest in front of her sons and daughters. Source: Anuc UR

According to a communiqué given by the National Police, Juan Francisco Gamboa Medina, a youth whose identity was given to the media by the commandant of the police, General Luis Alberto Gómez as Juan Carlos Duque, alias El Rolo, was found dead, "hanging from a ceramic towel holder" in a bathroom of the SIJIN (police intelligence unit) of Bogotá. He had been arrested on Tuesday, June 6 when he was giving a presentation of a midterm exam in the District University, where he studied electronic engineering. Despite this fact, the way in which he was presented to the mass media, and the very removal of the cadaver have sown serious doubts about what happened in the SIJIN installation last Wednesday, which has made the Lawyers¹ Collective (Colectivo de Abagdos) demand that an exhaustive, profound and impartial investigation be carried out to determine the true facts as well as the responsibilities, as prescribed by the regulations. Source: CCAJr While he was at his farm, located in the rural neighborhood of Los Alpinos, in the jurisdiction of the municipality of Montañita, Department of Caquetá. Where he had gone to search for three cows of his that were missing, the peasant Norvey Viuche Ortiz was approached by two soldiers, one of them Black, with a scar on his left hand, the other dark-complexioned, who pointed their guns at him, used bad words with him, and made him get off the horse on which he was traveling. Then they took him to a field of stubble, and made him take off his clothing, accusing him of being a guerrilla. These individuals later tried to pass for paramilitaries, which showed that they were mixed between the army and the paras. One of them kicked him several times, after which the other solder asked him what militia he belonged to and which commander had sent him there. Later the other soldier returned with a lieutenant who identified himself as Hemerson Jiménez. This man wore a gold necklace and a silver watch, and had thick eyebrows He insulted hm, askn g if he knew commander Wilmer; he also asked for his papers. Norvey told him that he had them in the house. Then the lieutenant said that he was a guerrilla because the guerrillas never carry papers, that the best ting would be for him to enter into the reinsertion plan, he told him that if he didn¹t cooperate he was going to kill him, then he made him get on his knees and answer three times, that if he didn¹t he would kill him. After this he put on gloves and hit him in the cheek, after which he grabbed him from behind, making him bend over and hitting him with his knee in the stomach. All three rained blows on him. The soldiers told him that they had permission to kill him and dress him in camouflage like a guerrilla to make his death legal. A minute later they made him lie face down for a while, they stood him up and took him to where there were eight soldiers. One of them grabbed him violently, took off his shirt, tying him with it around the neck to the point that he nearly was hanged, Later they had their boots on his neck, insulting him, telling him that since he didn¹t want to talk now they were going to kill him, putting the barrel of the rifle in his mouth, saying that it was a shame that they didn¹t have a chainsaw to cut him into pieces. Norvey¹s brother was with the soldiers; he asked about his brother; the soldiers told him that they had killed him. They continued humiliating him. After some time the lieutenant said that they were going to let him go. Then they blindfolded him with his shirt, the made him walk some 40 meters, they put him to his knees, and they left afterwards. Source: Fensuagro

At nearly 10:30 AM, in the rural neighborhood of Arenas Altas in San José de Apartadó four soldiers entered the house of Rodrigo Rodríguez and once again threatened him with death. During previous days, helicopters had machine-gunned the settlement. The XVII Brigade indicated that they were bombing a group of guerrillas. These people had to be rescued by a commission headed by the Defender of the People on June 12. Soldiers told two people in San José that they were preparing a big massacre in order to be able to advance, since during that period they had not been able to advance and defeat the guerrillas, that the only way to do it was a big massacre so the people would leave the area. Source: Día a día de Andas

June 19th: Gloria Amparo Suárez, Member of the OFP, Threatened. The People¹s Feminine Organization (Organización Feminina Popular, OFP) of Barrancabermeja, denounces the threat against our cmpanion Gloria Amparo Suárez, a member of the People¹s Feminine Organization for 15 years, a member of the leadership team, the mother of two children. OFP

June 20th: Mister Bianor Calderón was brutally murdered. This leader carried out the responsibility of Preident of the community action board (junta de acción comunal) and was a leader of the sector called La Esperanza III, in the north of Bucaramanga. He was distinguished as a social and community servant. We denounce this act and put the responsibility of the demobilized members of the so-called auto-defenses. Source: Control Committee of the North of Bucaramanga
June 23rd: In the morning hours in the rural neighborhood of Palmeras in the jurisdiction of the municipality of Vista Hermosa, the minors Yeiler Andrés Cubides Zuluaga, 15 years old, a native of the municipality of Mesetas (Meta) and José David Baquero, 16 years old were detained by units of the Mobil Brigade No. 12. Source: Human Rights Commission of the sector of the Guejar River.