Urgent Action: Denounce Paramilitary Threats toward San Pablo

CSN-Minnesota
29 July 1999
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The Colombia Support Group of Minnesota is extremely concerned about paramilitary threats and murders against the civilian population in its sister community, San Pablo, Colombia.

Background

The Colombia Support Group of Minnesota is a non-partisan, grass-roots organization that works to promote peace, respect for human rights and humanitarian law, and true democracy in Colombia. The Colombia Support Group does not take sides in the conflict in Colombia. It is a chapter of the Madison-based Colombia Support Network.

San Pablo is the sister community of the Colombia Support Group of Minnesota. The purpose of the sister community project is to strengthen and support the civilian society in San Pablo through the development of personal relationships between U.S. and Colombian citizens and non-governmental organizations struggling for peace.

San Pablo is a municipality located in the state of Bolívar, in the Magdalena Medio region of Colombia. This region, made up of 29 municipalities, is one of the most affected by the violence in Colombia. Its largest city, Barrancabermeja, is the most militarized city in Colombia.

The Magdalena Medio is a strategic zone in that it is rich in gold, uranium, petroleum, silver, emeralds and fertile land. Unfortunately, the civilian population in this region is a pawn caught in the middle of a power struggle between paramilitary, government, and guerrilla forces. As a result of this power struggle, the civilian population is subject to a vicious cycle of conflict and forced migration to flee the conflict. Currently, most of the forced migration is a result of the paramilitary presence in a majority of the municipalities in the Magdalena Medio, including San Pablo.

Despite the violence, there are civilian-based organizations working for change in and around San Pablo, including organizations that support women, mothers, fisherman, and human rights. Even though these organizations and the persons working for them remain neutral in the conflict, they are under violent attack by paramilitary with the acquiescence of government forces.

In fact, it is known that paramilitary forces are openly taking control of San Pablo, and are terrorizing the local civilian population through extortion and murder with the acquiescence of the Colombian armed forces. These attacks include most recently the extrajudicial murder of a San Pablo police inspector and his son.

In order to save lives of the civilian population in San Pablo, we ask that you immediately write or fax the individuals listed below according to the following instructions:

Recommended Action:

  1. Please send your letter immediately.
  2. Please see the attached sample letter for information to include in your letter or fax. As the situation in San Pablo is very sensitive, we ask that you not improvise or add additional information or requests to the letter.
  3. Please be respectful in the language you use when composing your letter.
  4. Please forward the request to write letters to other individuals and/or organizations immediately.
  5. If possible, please write your letter in English and sign it.
  6. Please forward a copy of your letter to: Colombia Support Group of MN, c/o RCTA, 317 SE 17th Ave., Mpls., MN 55414, or to Rbalch@Americas.org
  7. Please send or fax letters to the following individuals (please note that many of the fax numbers may also be telephone lines and that you may first need to request over the phone that the fax line be connected):

In Colombia:

  1. Teniente Coronel Miguel Martínez Bonilla
    Comandante del Batallón Nueva Granada
    Calle 52 Frente Comisariato de Ecopetrol
    Barrancabermeja (Santander)
    COLOMBIA
    Tel: 011 57 76 223348
    Fax: 011 57 76 229425
  2. Teniente Coronel Fernando Plata Rosso
    Comandante
    Flotilla Fluvial del Magdalena Medio
    Puerto Galán
    Barrancabermeja (Santander)
    COLOMBIA
    Tel/fax: 011 57 76 209271/ 209266 (Telephone and fax)
  3. Teniente Coronel Héctor Eduardo Peña Porras
    Comandante Batallón No 45 Héroes de Majagual
    Calle 52 Frente Comisariato de Ecopetrol
    A.A. 659
    Barrancabermeja (Santander)
    COLOMBIA
    Tel: 011 57 76 209025
    Fax: 011 57 76 226515
  4. Teniente Coronel Joaquín Correa González
    Comandante Operativo del Magdalena Medio
    Policía Nacional
    Av. Circunvalar con Carrera 24
    Barrancabermeja (Santander)
    COLOMBIA
    Tel: 011 57 76 213780
    Fax: 011 57 76 229553
  5. General Bravo Silva
    5ta Brigada
    Carrera 33 #14, Barrio los Pinos
    Bucaramanga
    COLOMBIA
    Tel/fax: 011 57 76 455051
  6. General Tobías Durán Quintanilla
    Policia Nacional/Santander
    Calle 41 #11 - 44
    Bucaramanga
    COLOMBIA
    Fax: 011 57 76 337789
  7. Coronel Francisco Fernandez Díaz
    14va Brigada
    Puerto Berrío
    Tel/fax: 011 57 4 8333006
  8. Doctor Humberto Martínez Neiva
    Ministro del Interior
    Carrera 8, Nro. 8-09
    Santafé de Bogotá
    COLOMBIA
    Fax: 011 571 3368377
  9. Doctor Luis Fernando Ramírez
    Ministro de Defensa
    Avenida El Dorado
    Carrera 52
    Santafé de Bogotá
    COLOMBIA
    Fax: 011 571 22153633

In the U.S.:

  1. Secretary of State
    Madeleine Albright
    2201 C St., NW
    Washington, DC 20520
    fax: 202-647-1533
  2. Your respective Congresspersons

Sample Letter

DEAR ______________,

We write to you as concerned U.S. citizens. We are aware of the following actions by paramilitaries in San Pablo:

  1. that paramilitaries under the command of Tayson, are currently living in San Pablo;
  2. that the paramilitaries have murdered local civilians and sown terror;
  3. that the paramilitaries live openly in local hotels and transit freely throughout the area without the army or the police doing anything to stop them;

The above situation not only is in contravention of the Colombian constitution, but it also puts into doubt the repeated promises by the Colombian government that it is dealing with the paramilitary problem and prosecuting those paramilitaries who violate the law. Indeed, it is a crime against internationally recognized human rights norms for a national armed force, such as the Colombian army and police, to ignore and acquiesce to criminal acts committed by paramilitary forces. By the same token, we recognize that the acts committed by guerrilla forces also violate international humanitarian law.

We do not support the violations of any group. We do not accept that the mayor and town council of Santa Rosa, a neighboring community of San Pablo, be considered a military target by the guerrillas. Further, we strongly denounce the recent extrajudicial murders by paramilitaries of the police inspector and his son, Edilberto Cardenas Agame and Otoniel Cardenas, in San Pablo.

As United States citizens and taxpayers we wish to contribute to the peace process in and around San Pablo. We wish to express our support to its civilian society which is made up of small farmers, fishermen, businessmen, and other inhabitants of San Pablo. We will follow the situation in San Pablo with great interest. We will continue to denounce violations of human rights and humanitarian law committed by the paramilitary forces to United States senators and congressional representatives, and to the citizens of the United states.

We expect you, as persons given the duty to protect the civilian population in Colombia in a legal manner, to legally remove any and all paramilitary forces from San Pablo immediately and to protect the physical integrity and rights of everyone in the area.

Sincerely,

YOUR NAME

© 1999 Publication