Two Lawyer to Lawyer Appeals in Colombia
MARCH 1998
JESUS MARIA VALLE JARAMILLO (COMITE PERMANENTE DE
DERECHOS HUMANOS "HECTOR ABAD GOMEZ") -COLOMBIA
Jes™s MarÌa Valle Jaramillo, a lawyer, former municipal official and
president
of the "HÈctor Abad GÛmez" Permanent Committee for Human
Rights (ComitÈ
Permanente de Derechos Humanos "HÈctor Abad GÛmez") was shot
to death in his
office in MedellÌn, Colombia, on February 27, 1998.
In recent months, Mr. Valle Jaramillo concentrated his efforts on
documenting
and denouncing the human rights situation in the state of Antioquia,
particularly in the municipality of Ituango in the northwestern part
of the
state. In June 1997, Mr. Jaramillo came into open conflict with
governmental
authorities after alleging publicly that paramilitaries were
conducting joint
patrols with the armed forces. After this interview, Alvaro Uribe
VÈlez, at
that time governor of Antioquia, publicly characterized Mr. Valle
Jaramillo as
an "enemy" of the armed forces of Colombia. Mr. Uribe VÈlez is well
known in
Colombia for his public statements in favor of paramilitary activity,
and for
his comment, quoted in El Tiempo, Colombia's largest newspaper, that
the work of
human rights groups is "guerrilla diplomacy."
Alarmed by the governor's comments, the Colectivo de Derechos
Humanos Semillas
de Libertad (CODHESEL) issued a public statement alleging that, with
the
prevailing tense situation in Colombia, Mr. Uribe VÈlez had
endangered Mr. Valle
Jaramillo by singling him out as an enemy of the armed forces. In
fact,
statements similar to Uribe's had been made by the military itself.
According to
Colombian human rights groups, a 1985 training manual for military
officers
produced by the army's War College (Escuela Superior de Guerra)
entitled "Get to
Know Our Enemy" listed the Permanent Committee as an enemy of
the armed forces.
Two years later, HÈctor Abad GÛmez, then the president of the
Permanent
Committee, was assassinated with a colleague as they attended a
ceremony for a
third human rights activist murdered the same day. Mr. Valle
Jaramillo assumed
the presidency after the murders.
As the human rights situation in Antioquia continued to deteriorate
in late
1997, Mr. Valle Jaramillo was active in denouncing flagrant
violations by
paramilitary forces. Between October 15 and 25, 1997, in the towns
of El Aro
and Santa Rita (in the area known as "el Nudo de Paramillo")
paramilitary forces
perpetrated, allegedly in conjunction with local military, a series of
massacres
which provoked a massive exodus of residents. The armed forces
contended that
the incidents had been skirmishes between the military and the
guerrillas, but
Mr. Valle Jaramillo alleged that the dead were innocent peasants, not
combatants. The army reacted to his allegations by filing a formal
complaint of
criminal defamation and conspiracy against him. Mr. Valle Jaramillo
also
received a series of death threats, and human rights groups say that
he was
placed on a paramilitary list of assassination targets, causing him to
resign
from his position as a municipal official.
During an on-site visit to Colombia in December, the Inter-American
Commission
for Human Rights met with Mr. Valle Jaramillo, who provided
information about
the human rights situation and the alleged links between the
military and
paramilitary groups, as well as the threats and charges against him.
In February, Mr. Valle Jaramillo was summoned to give a statement
in the
criminal defamation and conspiracy case against him. Undaunted, in
a press
interview on February 26 he stated that he had sufficient evidence
to back up
his allegations of numerous links between the paramilitary groups
and the armed
forces. Colombian NGOs and the UN's human rights office in Colombia
have also
received voluminous evidence of such links.
The next day, February 27, witnesses claim that the army and police
conducted a
joint search and seizure operation in MedellÌn's downtown area.
This operation
went on from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. Human rights workers from officers
near the
center, only blocks away from the Permanent Committee's office, say
that the
security forces blanketed the area, stopping pedestrians to demand
identification and search them for weapons. Nonetheless, at 2:30,
according to
eyewitnesses, 16 gunmen in civilian
clothes approached the Committee's offices without being stopped.
Three of
them-two men and a woman-proceeded inside. There were three
people in the office
at that time: Mr. Valle Jaramillo, his sister and a Committee staff
member. The
gunmen bound and gagged Mr. Valle Jaramillo's sister and colleague
and then
executed Mr. Valle Jaramillo with a gunshot to the head. The two
witnesses to
the killing claim that just prior to shooting him the gunmen
remarked, "We know
you are important, but you won't stop being a problem."
This killing is the latest in a series of violent acts, threats and
politically
inspired prosecutions against human rights activists, particularly
those in
Antioquia. Human rights groups around the country have reacted
with fear, as
the high-profile killing is seen by many as a signal that anyone can
be
targeted. These actions ignore President Ernesto Samper's ill-fated
Presidential Directive 011 to government officials, including military
commanders, to abstain from "formulating statements which
disregard the
legitimacy of human rights organizations, . . . or which constitute
harassment
or threat against them." (See December 1997 Appeal and Action
Update
accompanying this Appeal.)
The Prosecutor General's Bogot·-based Human Rights Unit has begun
an
investigation into the killing of Mr. Valle Jaramillo. The Prosecutor
General
and the Judicial Police Council have offered a reward of 200 million
Colombian
pesos (about $200,000) for information about those responsible for
this crime.
Recommended Action
Please write politely worded letters to the Attorney General urging
an
investigation into the killing. You may choose to indicate your
concern that
the circumstances warrant particular attention to whether members
of the
security forces acquiesced in or were otherwise involved in the
attack. In
addition, please write to Secretary of State Albright requesting that
the U.S.
government take steps to determine whether there was official
involvement in
this crime, and to take appropriate action as required under Section
570 of the
1998 Foreign Operations Appropriations Act (known as the Leahy
Amendment). The
Leahy amendment requires the Secretary of State to withhold funds
to security
force units regarding which the Secretary has credible evidence of
involvement
in gross violations of human rights, unless the Secretary determines
that the
Colombian government is taking "effective measures" to bring those
responsible
to justice.
Appeals to:
Dr. Alfonso Gomez MÈndez Madeleine Albright
Fiscal General de la NaciÛn Secretary of State
FiscalÌa General de la NaciÛn Department of State
Calle 35 No. 4-31 2201 C Street, NW
Apartado AÈreo 29855 Room 7226
SantafÈ de Bogot·, COLOMBIA Washington, DC 20520
Salutation: Dear Prosecutor General Salutation: Dear Secretary
of
State Albright
Fax: +571 288 2828 Fax: (202) 647-1533
Copies to:
Please send copies of your letters to your country's ambassador to
Colombia, as
well as to the Colombian ambassador to your country. For those in
the United
States, those individuals are:
Dr. Juan Carlos Esguerra Amb. Curtis W. Kamman
Embassy of Colombia U.S. Embassy
2118 Leroy Place Calle 22D Bis 47-51
Washington, D.C. 20008 SantafÈ de Bogot·, COLOMBIA
Fax: 202-232-8643 Fax:+571 315 2197
For further background on the human rights situation in Colombia
and reports on
other aspects of the Colombian justice system, click on the links in
the
electronic version of this Appeal on the Lawyers Committee's web
site:
http://www.lchr.org. Or contact Berenice Gervassi at the Lawyers
Committee at
(212) 845-5262 or at gervassib@lchr.org.
ACTION UPDATE
MARCH 1998
ALIRIO URIBE and MIGUEL PUERTO BARRERA
(CorporaciÛn Colectivo de Abogados JosÈ Alvear Restrepo)
BAYRON RICARDO G²NGORA (Colectivo de Derechos Humanos Semillas
de Libertad) and
WILLIAM GARCÕA CARTAGENA - COLOMBIA
The Lawyers Committee remains seriously concerned about the
fate of four
human rights lawyers in Colombia. In December, the Committee
issued a
Lawyer-to-Lawyer Appeal on behalf of Alirio Uribe and Miguel
Puerto Barrera of
the Bogot·-based JosÈ Alvear Restrepo Lawyers Collective
(CorporaciÛn Colectivo
de Abogados JosÈ Alvear Restrepo); Bayron Ricardo GÛngora
Arango, an attorney
with member organizations of the "Seeds of Liberty" Human Rights
Collective
(Colectivo de Derechos Humanos Semillas de Libertad: CODEHSEL), a
coordinating
federation of 15 human rights groups that operates in the
department of
Antioquia; and William GarcÌa Cartagena, a lawyer who has
represented many
individuals charged with political crimes. (The December Appeal
reported that
Mr. GarcÌa Cartagena is a member of one of CODEHSEL's constituent
organizations;
this is not in fact the case, although he is represented by CODEHSEL.)
Various
military intelligence reports accused Mr. Uribe and Mr. GÛngora of
belonging to
guerrilla organizations, using as the factual basis for the allegations
the
lawyers' human rights activities. Miguel Puerto Barrera was declared
a military
target, according to sources warned by a military source shortly after
Mr.
Puerto took part in a joint governmental-NGO commission to
investigate human
rights violations in Arauca department. Mr. Puerto was reportedly
briefly
detained by the military and later released.
Since the December Appeal the Lawyers Committee has received
additional
information about these cases. William GarcÌa Cartagena, who was
arrested and
detained for 15 days and then released when a prosecutor dismissed
the case, is
named in a second set of allegations against two other human rights
activists.
In that case, two paid informants for the military accused the three
of forming
part of the legal and political branches of subversive organizations.
A
military intelligence report prepared by the Sixth Battalion of
Antioquia's 20th
Brigade, which also forms the basis for the allegations, accuses
human rights
attorneys of blocking prosecutions with "fraudulent strategies."
CODEHSEL
reports that the prosecutor has not yet formally named GarcÌa
Cartagena as a
target of the criminal investigation, or decided whether to summon
him to
testify about the allegations.
An anonymous prosecutor in Colombia's "faceless" court system has
opened a
formal investigation against Bayron Ricardo GÛngora Arango on
charges of
rebellion. The only evidentiary basis for the prosecution appears to
be the
testimony of an informant for the military who was convicted for
participation
in illegal paramilitary groups. No other information about the case is
currently available.
No further developments are reported by the Lawyers Collective in
Bogot·
regarding lawyers Alirio Uribe and Miguel Puerto Barrera. For the
moment no
additional action is required on their cases. However, Lawyers
Collective staff
members have echoed the sentiments of others that the February 27
murder of
Jes™s MarÌa Valle Jaramillo (see Lawyer-to-Lawyer Appeal March
1998, included in
this mailing), interpreting this killing as a signal to human rights
lawyers
anywhere in the country that any of them can be targeted.
Recommended Action
Please write politely worded letters to Colombia's Prosecutor General
outlining
the concerns under international law that are raised by the cases
that have or
may be initiated against the CODEHSEL lawyers. These include rights
provided
for in Article 14(3) of the International Convention on Civil and
Political
Rights
(ICCPR) as well as Principle 18 of the United Nations Basic Principles
on the
Role of Lawyers. Citing the ICCPR is important, since the Colombian
government
has expressly stated its commitment to complying with the
recommendations of the
Human Rights Committee. Original letters (or copies of the letter to
the
Prosecutor General) may also be sent to the United Nations Office of
the High
Commissioner in Bogot·, which is responsible for reporting on
governmental
compliance with international instruments and for working with the
authorities
in the event of a complaint about compliance. Letters to the
Prosecutor General
should ask for an immediate review of the cases, and for the
investigations to
be terminated if the allegations do not provide a reasonable basis for
concluding that these lawyers were involved in illegal activities.
Letters to
the United Nations office should ask the representative of the High
Commissioner
for Human Rights to request information from the Colombian
authorities
clarifying the basis upon which these cases have been initiated, and
requesting
the Prosecutor General to close the cases definitively in the event
that no
adequate basis exists. Copies of your letters may also be sent to the
US
embassy.
Please send copies of your letters (not noted on the original) to
Cynthia Yoon
at the Lawyers Committee. If you are writing after March 31, or if
you require
further information about these cases, please contact Berenice
Gervassi at (212)
845-5262.
Appeals to:
Dr. Alfonso Gomez MÈndez Dra. Almudena Mazarrasa Alvear
Fiscal General de la NaciÛn Directora
FiscalÌa General de la NaciÛn Alto Comisionado Para los
Derechos
Humanos de las
Calle 35 No. 4-31 Naciones Unidas - Oficina en Colombia
Apartado AÈreo 29855 Calle 7a #74-56 Piso 11
SantafÈ de Bogot·, COLOMBIA SantafÈ de Bogot·, COLOMBIA
Salutation: Dear Prosecutor General Salutation: Dear Ambassador
Mazarrasa Alvear
Fax: +571 288 2828 Fax: +571 331 4050
Copies to:
Please send copies of your letters to your country's ambassador to
Colombia, as
well as to the Colombian ambassador to your country. For those in
the United
States, those individuals are:
Dr. Juan Carlos Esguerra Amb. Curtis W. Kamman
Embassy of Colombia U.S. Embassy
2118 Leroy Place Calle 22D Bis 47-51
Washington, D.C. 20008 SantafÈ de Bogot·, COLOMBIA
Fax: 202-232-8643 Fax: +571 315 2197
For further background on the "faceless courts," military justice and
other
relevant aspects of the Colombian justice system, see the Lawyers
Committee
publications Colombia: Public Order, Private Injustice and Comments
Relating to
the Fourth Periodic Report on Colombia before the U.N. Human Rights
Committee.
These are available on request from the Lawyers Committee, or by
following links
in the electronic version of this Appeal on the Committee's website,
http://www.lchr.org.