Oscar Duque

Front Line is extremely concerned following reports of a campaign of judicial harassment against members of the Asociación Campesina del Valle del Río Cimitarra – ACVC (Peasant Association of Cimitarra River Valley). Eighteen members of the ACVC currently face judicial procedures, including Andrés Gil, Óscar Duque (pictured), Mario Martínez and Evaristo Mena, who were arrested on 29 August 2007 and are still detained at Modelo prison in Bucaramanga.

Further Information

Posted 05/10/2007 On 29 August 2007, three members of the ACVC, Andrés Gil, coordinator of the ACVC in Barrancabermeja; Óscar Duque, a working group member; and Evaristo Mena, were arrested and detained by agents of the Administrative Security Department (DAS) and military officers during a community meeting in Cagüí, Cantagallo. Reports claim that members of the DAS fired shots in the air amid attempts by community members to prevent the arrests. On the same day, Mario Martínez, ACVC treasurer, was arrested by members of the DAS at his home in Barrancabermeja.

Furthermore, at approximately 4.00 pm on 29 August 2007, a number of military officers and DAS agents entered the ACVC regional office, located in a building where community members and their families also live. They had further arrest warrants for 14 other members of the ACVC. Nobody was arrested at the time. On 1 October 2007, members of the DAS entered the ACVC office a second time. No one was present at the time. The arrest warrants for the 18 members of the ACVC had been apparently issued by the Prosecutor for Barrancabermeja (Fiscalía Tercera Seccional).

Andrés Gil, Óscar Duque, Mario Martínez and Evaristo Mena, are currently being detained at Modelo prison in Bucaramanga and have been charged with alleged acts of ‘rebellion’.

Members of the ACVC have been targeted throughout 2007. At the beginning of September 2007, a Commander from the Central Bolívar Division of the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC), reportedly accused a number of organisations including the ACVC of “criminal acts in the name of marxism”, during a hearing with the Prosecutor for Justice and Peace in Barrancabermeja. On 31 July 2007, two human rights organisations, Corporación Regional para la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos (Regional Cooperation for Human Rights, CREDHOS) the Organización Femenina Popular (Popular Women’s Organisation, OFP), received emails stating that they, as well as members of the ACVC, would be targeted if they did not cease their activities in defence of human rights. The email also declared various members of the said organisations as military targets. The message was allegedly sent by a paramilitary group known as the 'Águilas Negras' ('Black Eagles').

On 5 October 2006, Óscar Duque was arbitrarily arrested by military officers at his home in the municipal of Yondó and Cantagallo, in Cimitarra River Valley. He was released two days later.

Front Line is concerned that the arrest and detention of Andrés Gil, Óscar Duque, Mario Martínez and Evaristo Mena, and the issuing of arrest warrants against 14 other members of the ACVC, is part of a campaign of judicial harassment against members of the ACVC, and is directly related to the work of ACVC in defence of human rights in Colombia, specifically their work in promoting a ‘reserva Campesina’ in the region of Magdalena del Medio.

The ACVC is a legally registered organisation, which works for the rights of displaced people in Colombia. In July 2007, the ACVC acted as interlocutor on behalf of the National Government when an agreement was signed to combat the regional humanitarian crisis.