“though it hurts us, we have no other option but to kill your daughter, even if you go around in an armoured car, your daughter will suffer, we are going to burn her alive, we are going to scatter her fingers all over the place.”
Colombian Human Rights Defender Claudia Duque has been forced to go into exile along with her daughter as a result of the increasing severity of the threats against their personal safety. Along with several threatening phone-calls, voicemails and text messages since 7th September, Claudia Duque had been followed and her home had been patrolled. In a letter which she sent to the Colombian Ministry of Interior, Ms. Duque asserted that the inefficiency and inadequacy of the security assigned to her left her with no alternative but to go into exile. Furthermore, in her letter to the Ministry, Ms Duque alleged that one its agencies – La Comite de Reglamentacion y Evaluacion de Riesgos (CRER) – was jeopardising her safety through its complicity with those threatening her.
