Two More ACVC Leaders Jailed

22.01.08

On Saturday, January 19, ACVC leaders Miguel González Huepa and Ramiro Ortega were captured by soldiers from the Calibío Battalion.

The apprehension of the two rural leaders occurred at 5:30 p.m. in the village of Puerto Nuevo Ité (known as The Cooperative) in the Remedios municipality, in Northeastern Antioquia department, as they were finishing a meeting with the village inhabitants.

Miguelk and Ramiro are at this time still in the custody of troops from the Calibío Battalion, under the command of Second Lieutenant Chavarría.

On December 28, 2007, troops under the command of Lieutenant Páez, part of the Calibío Battalion of the 14th Brigade, Seventh Division of the Colombian Army, murdered peasant farmer Parmenio Manuel Hernández Anaya, who was later reported as a guerrilla killed in combat.

During the last two years, there have been 14 cases of extra-judicial executions by the Colombian Army in the territory of the Cimitarra River Valley Rural Agricultural Reserve. The military presents these murders to the media as the result of combat with the guerrillas, typical cases of what have become known in Colombia as “false positives.”

With these new arrests, the number of jailed ACVC leaders rises to six. Another five leaders of our organization have arrest warrents out against them. The ACVC is the only Colombian organization that has its entire board of directors in prison or under threat of imprisonment.

The persecution of the Campesino Association of the Cimitarra River Valley (ACVC) seeks to achieve the “military and social recuperation” of our territory and is being developed by the Center for the Coordination of Integrated Action. This agency is run by Uribe and enjoys the participation of advisors from the U.S. Embassy and members of the U.S. Army Southern Command.

The clear objective of the persecution of the ACVC is to make it disappear from the political realm by any means necessary. Any formula from the state is valid as long as it achieves the unanimity of opinion that the Uribe regime dreams of.

All our solidarity to the relatives of all the murdered campesinos. To our jailed comrades, a message of resistance. For all the members of the ACVC, a clear direction: don’t let yourselves be killed, don’t let yourselves be captured.

We demand that the commander of the Calibío Battalion turn Ramiro and Miguel over to the Fiscalía (civilian prosecutor) immediately.

Asociación Campesina del Valle del río Cimitarra
January 20, 2008

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