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Interview with Colombian HRD Carlos Guevara on the significance of Colombia's peace agreement with the FARC for human rights and HRDs in the country.
Rights:
Interview with Claudia Julieta Duque, Colombian HRD and journalist, who has suffered repeated threats, intimidation, surveillance and attacks against her, and who successfully brought a case against the intelligence agencies of Colombia for psychological torture.
Rights:
HRDs:
Claudia Julieta Duque
Ingrid Vergara Chavéz is a land rights defender working with the Movement of Victims of State Crimes (MOVICE) in Sucre, Colombia. Ingrid and her colleagues demand justice and an end to impunity for government and paramilitary crimes, and advocate for the return of lands to displaced peasant and indigenous communities In response, she and her daughters have been threatened with weapons, public pamphlets, phone and email messages, and surveillance.
Rights:
HRDs:
Ingrid Vergara Chavéz
Blog Post
Closed Case
17 December 2015
On 6 July 2013, human rights defenders Jeison Paba Reyes received a threat via e-mail claiming that he and his family had been declared “military targets”.
Violations
Location
HRD or Organization
Closed Case
3 September 2019
In the last weeks, attacks against members of the Movimiento Ríos Vivos, in particular against its spokesperson, Isabel Zuleta and William de Jesus Gutierrez have intensified. Likewise, other members of the movement had to leave the country due to threats against their life.
Violations
Location
HRD or Organization
Closed Case
31 July 2019
On 25 July 2019, the Second Specialised Criminal Judge of Bogotá prohibited journalist and woman human rights defender, Claudia Julieta Duque from speaking, giving interviews, informing, issuing opinions and publishing photographs in relation to the legal process against former Administrative Department of Security (DAS) deputy director Emiro Rojas Granados, who is accused of psychological torture against her.
Rights
Violations
Location
HRD or Organization
Closed Case
21 May 2019
On 14 May 2019, human rights defenders from COSAJUCA, Comité Ambiental en Defensa de la Vida, Conciencia Campesina and UCAT, as well as the President of the Cajamarca Municipal Council, received online death threats. The threats were made in relation with their human rights activities around the promotion of a Public Consultation with the community of Cajamarca, concerning the implementation of a mining project in the area. This is not the first time that those involved in the Public Consultation have been threatened.
Rights
Location
HRD or Organization
Closed Case
3 May 2019
On 20 April 2019, defamatory and threatening pamphlets about Fuerza de Mujeres Wayuu were posted on a fake Facebook profile. Six members of the organisation were named in the threats, including its director Jakeline Romero. The social media attack is part of a wider pattern of harassment against those who denounce human rights violations in the rural territories of Colombia.
Violations
Location
HRD or Organization
Closed Case
7 May 2019
On 20 April 2019, defamatory and threatening pamphlets about Fuerza de Mujeres Wayuu were posted on a fake Facebook profile. Six members of the organisation were named in the threats, including its director Jakeline Romero. The social media attack is part of a wider pattern of harassment against those who denounce human rights violations in the rural territories of Colombia.
Violations
Location
HRD or Organization
Closed Case
15 January 2019
On 11 January 2019, the vehicle in which Alfamir Castillo Bermúdez was travelling was shot at by two unidentified men on a motorcycle while she was on her way to Pradera, Valle del Cauca. This is the latest in a series of threats and incidents, which have increased since the end of 2018, against the woman human rights defender.
Violations
Location
HRD or Organization
Closed Case
13 December 2018
Between 21 November 2018 and 7 December 2018, six indigenous and campesino human rights defenders were killed in Colombia. On 8 December 2018, the Awá leader and woman human rights defender Lidia Gómez suffered an assassination attempt. All of these defenders were working to protect their economic, social and cultural rights in the regions of Cauca, Nariño and Norte de Santander.
Violations
Location
HRD or Organization
Closed Case
1 December 2014
Since January 2014 environmental human rights defenders from Movimiento Rios Vivos – MRV (Living Rivers Movement) have been facing death threats, surveillance, break-ins, smear campaigns and harassment. In 2013, two members of Movimiento Rios Vivos were murdered.
Rights
Location
HRD or Organization
Closed Case
24 October 2018
On 3 June 2013, at 8:48pm, an email was sent to Colonel Julián González, Chief of Police for Sucre, Colombia, informing him of a plan to kill human rights defender Mr Juan David Díaz Chamorro, his wife Ms Malena Martínez, and one other person closely linked to the family. Several other human rights defenders were copied in the email.
Violations
Location
HRD or Organization
Closed Case
4 April 2017
On 30 March 2017, around 10 am., the coordinator of the communications team of El Salmón and reporter of the Programa Radial Reporte Colombia (Radio Program Report Colombia), received death threats during an anonymous call. The threats were linked to his work covering the environmental case against La Colosa and were made while he was providing media coverage of the Public Consultation process in Cajamarca.
Rights
Violations
Location
HRD or Organization
Closed Case
10 January 2019
Six human rights defenders, Maritza Quiroz Leiva, Wilson Pérez Ascanio, José Rafael Solano, Wilmer Antonio Miranda, Jesús Adier Perafán, and Gilberto Valencia were killed in violent attacks in Colombia during the first week of 2019.
Violations
Location
HRD or Organization
Closed Case
1 November 2018
On 26 October 2018, a member of Movimiento Ríos Vivos Antioquia in Ituango received a threatening message directed to human rights defenders Genaro de Jesus Graciano and Isabel Cristina Zuleta. In addition, members of the Movement have become aware of a threatening pamphlet distributed by the paramilitary group Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia- AGC (Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces of Colombia), which declares members of Movimiento Rios Vivos as a “military target”.
Violations
Location
HRD or Organization
Closed Case
24 October 2018
On 19 October 2018, the workplace of woman human rights defender Malena Mariet Martínez Montoya in Sincelejo, Sucre, Colombia was broken into and ransacked. The office’s lock was broken, but nothing was stolen and the police found a note threatening the human rights defender. Malena Mariet Martínez Montoya filed a formal complaint before the National Prosecutor’s Office on 20 October 2018.
Violations
Location
HRD or Organization
Closed Case
26 September 2018
On 22 September 2018, two relatives of members of the Movimiento Ríos Vivos Antioquia were assassinated, one in the municipality of Briceño and the other in the municipality of Valdivia. These are the latest incidents in a series of attacks against the movement’s members and their families.
Violations
Location
HRD or Organization
Closed Case
11 May 2018
On 2 May 2018, human rights defender Hugo Albeiro George Pérez was shot and killed by an unknown individual, while he was participating in a peaceful protest to oppose the impact of Hidroituango Hydroelectric Project in Colombia’s Antioquia Department. The human rights defender’s nephew, Domar Egidio Zapata George, was also killed in the attack.
Violations
Location
HRD or Organization
