Stop the murders and threates against the organisers of the 6th March march!
Toby Bartels 19 Mar 2008 00:59 GMT (translated by Toby Bartels)
On the 6 of March last, hundreds of thousands of people were mobilized in 24 parts of the country for a day of shared solidarity summoned by the Movement of Victims of State Crimes (MOVICE). The same day, acts of solidarity were carried out in 74 cities of the world. Since the moment at which the proposal for the day became public, stigmatisation and signals, coming at bottom from the high Government and other sectors of the extreme right, have generated a climate of polarisation whose consequences have not been hopeful. Through several means of communication since the 10th of February, presidential advisor José Obdulio Gaviria accused the march of the 6th of March of being "summoned by the FARC". On the 12 of February, pamphlets threatening the organizers of the march were spread by electronic mail. Soon a wave of murders were let loose.
Among the murdered are the unionists Leonidas Gómez, leader of the workers of Citibank, Carlos Burbano, health worker, teacher carmen Cecilia Carvajal and also educator Gildardo Gómez; additionally three other social leaders. On the 29th of February, shots were fired at the apartment of Luz Adriana González, Secretary-General of the Permanent Committee for the Defense of Human rights -CPDH- of Risaralda. This organization is part of MOVICE and Luz Adriana was a promoter of the march. On the 7 of March, the President of UNEB, Bucaramanga Section, Rafael Boada, was a victim of an attack that luckily left him unharmed. Iván Cepeda, from the Steering Committee of MOVICE, received several threats in his electronic mail. Among 27 other threatened leaders and activists are Antonio Pedrozo, member of the organization Weaving Hope and Coordinator of the National March of the Displaced; Mauricio Cubides and Guillermo Castaño, leaders of Fensuagro; Luz Helena Ramírez, member of the Steering Committee of MOVICE and Marina Gallego of the Pacific Route of Women.
On the 11th of March, a death threat arrived by electronic mail to several social and human-rights organisations, signed by the paramilitary group "Black Eagles". Among the adressees of the threat are Minga, Fundip, Asopron, Andas, Asdego, Asomujer, Fenacoa, Codhes, CUT, ONIC, the Colombian Commission of Jurists, the Pacific Route of Women, the Permanent Assembly of Civil Society for Peace, Asomujer and Reiniciar and other organisers and participants of the march. The 15th of March, the threat was raised against indymedia.
These facts, besides demonstrating that paramilitarism continues to act, constitute one attempt to avoid accepting that the cause of victims of state crimes continues to gain massive endorsement and obtains truth, justice and reparation. It is time to stop the murders and threats against the organizers of the 6th of March.