Colombia Arrests Social Activists for Bogotá Bombing Despite Lack of Evidence
Colombia Arrests Social Activists for Bogotá Bombing Despite Lack of Evidence
Monday, 20 July 2015 00:00
By Kate Aronoff, Waging Nonviolence | News Analysis
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In a sign that reads “No legal false positives,” activists in Popayán show solidarity
with the 16 jailed activists (Photo: WNV / Irene Arenas)
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On the morning of July 8, the district attorney of Colombia, in coordination with the National Police, rounded up and arrested 16 people for their alleged connection to a bombing in the capital city of Bogotá a few days earlier. Today, those arrested sit in their cells awaiting indictment. The question being asked by the country's activists, progressive media and a growing base of skeptics outside of the cellblock is whether they've done anything wrong.
Despite a marked lack of evidence, Colombian President Manuel Santos has pinned the attack on the National Liberation Army - the country's second largest terrorist group next to the FARC. Following the raids, Santos' Defense Ministry further claimed that the suspects were "acting in the name of the ELN," the Spanish abbreviation of the rebel group.
But are those arrested the hardened guerrillas the government claims? Among the jailed are Jhon Fernando Acosta, a 19-year-old performing arts student active around issues of gender equality, and Heilar Lampara, a 25-year-old representative to the Superior University Council from the National Teacher's University and an advocate for free higher education. Writer Sergio Esteban Segura Guiza, who has covered the country's armed conflict and peace process as a correspondent for the independent news outlet Colombia Informa, had his journalistic archive seized at the time of his arrest. Women's rights lawyer Paola Andrea Salgado Piedrahita, also arrested, could face as many as 30 years in prison if the case goes to trial.
Many are organizers within Colombia's student movement through the National Student Roundtable, or MANU, and seven are affiliated with Congreso de los Pueblos, a social and political movement fighting, amongst other issues, against displacement by the country's extractive industry. Two are contractors with the city government. While Fernando Acosta is the youngest of those arrested, none are over the age of 34.
More:
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/31964-colombia-arrests-social-activists-for-bogota-bombing-despite-lack-of-evidence