More Human Rights Violations in Huila

19.12.11

December 15, 2011

By ATCH
Translated by IPO

The Peasant Workers Association of Huila (ATCH) and the Jose Antonio Galan Human Rights Corporation (CORPOJAG) denounce, to the national and international audience, to the news media, state institutions, and human rights NGOS, the Colombian security forces’ repeated false accusations of guerrilla collaboration in various rural communities. Among those communities falsely and illegally accused are Nueva Reforma, Versalles, Rio Blanco, Rio Negro, La Libertad, Darien, Las Perlas, Laureles, and Venadito, all of which are part of the municipality of Baraya in the department of Huila. These accusations are part of the grave pattern of threats and intimidation carried out in the past years by members of the Tenerife Battalion, the Ninth Brigade, and the Gaula Groups of the Army, as well as the internal security service (DAS), which have converted these peasant communities into military targets.

The Facts:

1. On May 21st at 5:30AM Edgar Ortiz was with his fifteen year old son Edgar Ortiz Jr. in their house in the area of Las Perlas when they heard the roar of several army helicopters. The helicopters began to fire on his house and fields, destroying his plantain and coffee crops as well as a fence. A few minutes later soldiers arrived at his house and attempted to knock down the door to the room where Ortiz and his son had taken shelter. After several attempts they broke open the metal door with a steel rod. The soldiers grabbed Ortiz and began to beat and insult him, accusing him of harboring guerrillas in his house. They then photographed him and copied the information from his identity card, after which he was thrown to the floor, threatened with a gun to the head, and told to open the other doors of his house. All this occurred in front of his young son. The soldiers then searched the house, rummaging through the family’s belongings without any judicial search order.

2. At 7:30AM that same day, 15 helicopters arrived at the village of Las Perlas. One of the helicopters fired indiscriminately on the house of Sandra Milena Toledo, the secretary of the Communal Action Committee, even though several of her family members including four children were inside. A half hectare of corn was destroyed in the gunfire. Soldiers in camouflage and face paint then arrived, wearing the insignias of the DAS and GAULA, and entered the house without a warrant. They photographed Toledo’s husband, Yofaber Garcia, and Maria Evelia Forero, a member of the Communal Action Committee and the mother of Toledo. The soldiers accused them of harboring guerrillas in their house and photographed the four children present, Jaime Garcia of 14 years, Jose Esneider Garcia, 13, Jonatan David Garcia, 11, and Mayerli Andrea Garcia, 9 (who had found an explosive artifact behind the house, and threw it in the nearby river out of fear).

3. Anibal Rodriguez, member of the Communal Action Committee of Las Perlas, denounces the army’s incursions into the area, which violate his property and damage his fences and crops.

4. On September 15, 2011 at 10:20AM, several army helicopters landed in the village of Rio Blanco, shooting indiscriminately at the surrounding houses, among which was that of Sandra Monica Peralta Amaya, member of the Communal Action Committee of Rio Blanco, Elvia Amaya, and the children Karen Alejandra Sarria, 6, and Diego Andres Sarria, 3, who suffers from mental retardation. Fifteen minutes after the helicopters passed, soldiers with face paint, led by a masked officer, arrived and began to terrorize the house’s occupants. The soldiers detained then in the house and registered their names. Meanwhile the house was turned upside down as soldiers searched through it without any warrant.

5. Fidel Gonsalez Losoda, resident of the village Rio Blanco, treasurer of the village school’s kitchen, and member of the Communal Action Committee, denounces that on September 15th, 2011, soldiers invaded his wooden house, breaking the locks and pulling apart the planks of the walls. The soldiers rummaged through his belongings, including a large sum of money in a plastic briefcase from his job as the kitchen treasurer. They also took items from his kitchen and seized a copy of his identity card. Although Gonsalez was not at home during the invasion, his neighbors realized what had happened and informed him.

6. Diana Yolanda Guzman, resident and member of the community of Rio Blanco, denounces that on September 15th, 2011 at 10:30AM, soldiers with face paint entered her house and accused her of harboring guerrillas, in addition to accusing her husband of providing vaccination medicine to the guerrillas.
The Peasant Worker’s Association of Huila and the Human Rights Corporation Jose Antonio Galan rejects all kinds of threats and intimidation against the peasant communities of the municipality of Baraya, who are members of our organization.

We emphatically reject the stigmatization, attacks, and persecution of these peasant communities; persecution which is clearly aimed at destroying the good name and integrity of these people and their families.
We demand that the pertinent actions be taken in order to identify those responsible for these violations, and in order to guarantee that they will not be repeated. We hold the national government and its representative Juan Manuel Santos responsible, in addition to the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of the Interior, the Vice President’s office, and all other members of the national government, including the military, of any action taking against the aforementioned peasant communities. These officials are obligated to respect and preserve the life of the citizenry, and to realize and protect human rights in general.
As such we demand that the state effectively guarantee the human rights of the peasant communities of Baraya, Huila, and that the national government take the necessary measures to guarantee the life, honor, and personal integrity of these communities, as well as that of every Colombian peasant.

Call for Solidarity:
We ask the national and international community, the news media, non-governmental and state human rights organizations to join with and accompany the peasant communities of ATCH, especially the villages of Nueva Reforma, Rio Blanco, Versalles, Rio Negro, Darien, La Libertad, Las Perlas, Laureles, and Venadito, of the municipality of Baraya, Huila.

Please direct your messages of support to the following authorities:
JUAN MANUEL SANTOS CALDERÓN
Presidente de la República
Carrera 8 No. 7 -26 Palacio de Nariño Bogotá
Fax. 5662071

ANGELINO GARZÓN
Vicepresidente de la República
Carrera 8 No.7-57 Bogotá D.C.

RODRIGO RIVERA
Ministro de la Defensa
Avenida El dorado con carrera 52 CAN Bogotá D.C.
siden@mindefensa.gov.co
infprotocol@mindefensa.gov.co
mdn@cable.net.co

GERMÁN VARGAS LLERAS
Ministro del Interior y de Justicia
Avenida El dorado con carrera 52 CAN Bogotá D.C.
Fax. 2221874
ministro@minjusticia.gov.co

VIVIANE MORALES HOYOS
Fiscal General de la Nación
Diagonal 22B No. 52-01 Bogotá D.C.
Fax. 570 20 00
contacto@fiscalia.gov.co
denuncie@fiscalia.gov.co

WOLMAR ANTONIO PEREZ ORTIZ
Defensor del Pueblo
Calle 55 No. 10 – 32 Bogotá D.C.
Fax. 640 04 91
defensoria@defensoria.org.co
secretaria_privada@hotmail.com

ALEJANDRO ORDOÑEZ MALDONADO
Procurador General de la Nación
Cra. 5 No.15 – 80F Bogotá D.C.
anticorrupción@presidencia.gov.co
reygon@procuraduría.gov.co

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