Death threats revealed against 13 Colombian human rights advocates .

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Colombia Reports

Death threats revealed against 13 Colombian human rights advocates .
Thursday, 05 July 2012 06:48 Brandon Barrett

Colombian authorities revealed Wednesday that a pamphlet from a group calling itself the "Anti-restitution Army" threatened death against 13 human rights supporters in the country.

The obscenity-laden document called prominent land restitution advocates, including Colombian politicians Ivan Cepeda, Piedad Cordoba and lawyer Jose Humberto Torres, "guerrillas hidden in the roles of human rights defenders" and that the "Anti-restitution Army" has instructions to "eliminate them."

"We will not allow the taking of this land from good people to give to guerrillas disguised as victims," the document read.

According to official figures, there have been 169 threats to human rights supporters in Colombia in 2012.

Colombia's Victims and Land Restitution Law, which went into effect in January, seeks to restore land stolen from citizens through displacement by armed groups. Claimants have to prove that their land was lost through forced displacement and that they will use their restored property for something useful.

Read more: http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/24931-death-threats-revealed-against-13-colombian-human-rights-advocates.html

[antigone382]

1. I'll never forget when Afro-Colombian activist Daira Elsa Quinones came to speak at my school...

...it opened my eyes to just how violent Colombia and much of the rest of the world is to labor and land-rights activists...many people here are so ignorant (as those in power have arranged for them to be) about how bad things are. Thanks for these posts.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Wonderful to learn that any of the Colombian activists has spoken here to young US Americans.

They are courageous beyond understanding. Clearly they do it for more than themselves, they hope for the future of their country.

The right-wing narcotrafficking/death squad-employing elite has lethal tendrils, and no one is really safe from them, not even people in their witness-protection programs, as did one witness who imagined he was hiding safely in the north of Canada under a new name found out, which sent him running to the Canadian Government for protection next.

It would have been wonderful hearing that speaker. Thanks for sharing the information.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Alleged murder plot against leftist magazine editor uncovered .

Alleged murder plot against leftist magazine editor uncovered .
Tuesday, 05 June 2012 09:00 Brandon Barrett

Carlos Lozano, editor of the leftist weekly magazine "La Voz," said "a credible source" revealed there is a $200,000 bounty on his head. Lozano said that Daniel Rendon Herrera, alias "Don Mario," the jailed founder of right-wing neo-paramilitary group "Los Urabeños," ordered his assassination "soon."

A January article in weekly magazine Semana claimed Don Mario continues to run the drug trafficking organization from his Bogota prison cell, where he has been since his 2009 capture.

"I need to warn the criminals who ordered my assassination, you do not intimidate me. They cannot silence me," said Lozano.

The journalist is also a member of former Senator Piedad Cordoba's humanitarian group, Colombians for Peace. Cordoba and other members of the peace organization have been the recent targets of alleged neo-paramilitary assassination plots.

More:
http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/24418-head-of-leftist-magazine-claims-there-is-murder-plot-against-him.html