COLOMBIA: Combats and heavy bombings in countryside of Tame (Araucan)

by the Farmer Association of Arauca Friday, Jul. 31, 2009 AT 11:08 p.m.

Towards the noon of Thursday 30 of July, in the village Philippine, jurisdiction of the municipality of Tame, department of Arauca, combats between the guerrilla and the National army occured for about two hours, approximately. As a result of the confrontations, the public force carried out heavy bombings and strafings from helicopters and airplanes KFIR, which hit on several farmers' properties . Particularly the estate of Mrs. Maria Camila Benavides Durán was affected, since ten animals of their property died because of the bombings. In a public official notice released in recent days, the Farmer Association of Arauca denounced that from the 25th of June the National army occupied the Philippine small village and held the civil population as human shield, since the soldiers were located in the houses without the consent of their inhabitants. This attitude puts in risk the life of the settlers of the Philippines and represents an infraction of the International Humanitarian Law, that forces the combatants to exclude the civil population of the armed conflict.

www.prensarural.org

COLOMBIA: Assasination of farmers' leader, member of the ANC and the Minga Popular Resistance

Thursday, Jul. 02, 2009

JOSE Betancourth ANTONIO LOPEZ from the Association of Peasants of antioquean Bajo Cauca (ASOCBAC)

With anger and pain in the world today we denounce the vile assassination of farmers' leader JOSE ANTONIO LOPEZ Betancourth member of the Association of Peasants of antioquean Bajo Cauca (ASOCBAC) who was missing since Tuesday June 30 at 6 : 15 pm approximately, when he was going in a taxi from the town of Taraza Antioquía to El Doce.

Versions say it was down by men who tied him, took him away and was found today, July 2 in the morning buried near the aqueduct in the village of Piedras completely dismembered.

The comrade Jose Antonio was a spokesman for the marches by coca farmers, and on several occasions in which they signed agreements with national and departmental governments which were never fulfilled.

The comrade Jose Antonio arrived with the intention to unite efforts in the struggle, resistance and permanence in the territories.

Also he was member of the Political Committee of MINGA SOCIAL AND POPULAR RESISTANCE in which he actively participate in scheduled meetings, ans also in meetings with delegates of the national government.

He leaves behind his wife and 3 children grieving for his loss and claiming justice, he leaves behind a process of peasant struggle and resistance and a legacy of sacrificing his life in defense of the peasantry, and the message of unity, solidarity and resistance.

These facts are presented in the framework of democratic security policy of the president Alvaro Uribe Velez, in an area of military and paramilitary control, only 10 minutes from a checkpoint of the Army of Colombia and with presence of Police in urban areas.

We confirm once again that the government does not care about solving the problems of Colombian peasants and all of us who dare to demand we are branded as terrorists, brought to courts, killed or disappeared.

We appeal to the national and international sister organizations to demand from the Colombian State to clarify the facts, punish those responsible for his murder shall not remain in the impunity that reigns today in Colombia.

We send a warm and fraternal solidarity hug to the family of Jose Antonio, as well as to the comrades of ASOCBAC expressing our commitment to continue the struggle, resistance and following the example of our comrade and leader

National Agrarian Coordinator of Colombia CNA

Bogota, July 2, 2009

source: Colombia Indymedia

Till when the assassination of Venezuelan peasants at the hands of Colombian paramilitaries?

Office of Culture paraYaracuy Friday, Feb. 20, 2009 at 1:57 PM

Demanding the cessation of killing of peasants in the hands of paid assassins, Fedenaga and landowners.

Until when will be continued the impunity and the killing of peasants in Venezuela, in the hands of paid assassins and paramilitaries in Colombia, funded by landowners and Fedenagas? Aren't enough the deaths of 213 agricultural leaders since 2001, after it was enacted the Land and development Act , and Nelson Lopez being the last victim of this permanent terrorism, when he was shot fourteen times in the back on February 12 in the Bartola in Bruzual Municipality Yaracuy state?

That is what he said the peasant leader and member of the National Assembly at the state of Yaracuy, Braulio Alvarez referring to the deaths on demand, of farmers in this region and across Venezuela during an act of repudiation against impunity and killing on demand, indicating as intellectual responsible the president of the National Association of Cattlemen, Genaro Mendez, Fhandor Quiroga, president of Fedenagas Yaracuy, the landowner Luis Gallo and members of the family of Lecuna Di Battista for the death of the yaracuyano farmer Nelson Lopez.

Death to impunity

During this event organized by the Regional Agrarian Unified Command, this Thursday at the Cinemateca in San Felipe, attended as support for this voice of protest the Legislative Council deputy in the state of Yaracuy, Ivan Aparicio, the leader of the Peasant Movement Jirajara, Joel Pineda, Kamal Hassan representing the Ministry Cabinet of Culture, the regional director of the Ministry of Agriculture and lands, Gabriel Gil, the peasant leader Laura Lawrence and Henry Fernandez of the National Association of Free and alternative Community Media (ANMCLA).

On April 10 -assured Congressman Alvarez - Genaro Mendez was in Yaracuy to meet with local leaders of Fedenagas and proselytizing in favor of NO, and he took the opportunity to launch the following warning "Mr President Chavez, if you do not take measures against criminals and land invaders, then we will take the law into our hands and we will do justice", then two days later they killed Nelson Lopez when he was entering his home.

Historical Debt

Similarly we demand the inhibition of the prosecutor II of the Public Ministry, Alejandro Marquez responsible for the investigation of this crime, for having managed earlier a record against Lopez which still remains open, as of the judge for the National Agricultural Circuit Yaracuy, mrs Linda Lugo, for having promoted on countless opportunities with her flawed decisions the interests of yaracuyanos landowners.

These 213 farmers killed in collusion with Colombian paramilitary forces and Fedenagas only were asking to be the producers in land which in the past was snatched from their indigenous ancestors, for our African ancestors later to be slaves and afterwards to become pawns of the same land, assured at the end of the meeting Braulio Alvarez that also has been once victim of an attack against him.

www.aporrea.org

STOP THE STATE CRIMES AGAINST FARMERS MEMBERS OF FENSUAGRO-CUT

THE FEDERATION OF THE UNITED NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL AND

AQUACULTURAL UNION (FEDERACIÓN NACIONAL SINDICAL

UNITARIA AGROPECUARIA) FENSUAGRO-CUT (COLOMBIA)

denounces the vile assassinations that have victimized various

campesino compañeros who are members of organizations affiliated

with FENSUAGRO-CUT, from the departments of Cauca, Tolima, and

Santander, committed by paramilitary groups and the military.

WHAT HAS OCCURRED

1. THE FIRST OF JANUARY, 2009, at four in the morning, while he was

talking with friends and family, the Communist leader of the district of

Montoso, Municipality of Prado, Tolima, ADOLFO TIQUE, 55 years of age,

father of six children, member of the union of farm workers in Tolima,

SINTRAGRITOL, and of the Polo Democrático Alternativa, PDA (Translators

Note: the PDA is a broad Center-Left coalition political party), was attacked

with a short, sharp weapon. With three stab wounds located in the upper

area of the chest, he was taken to the local Prado hospital, ceasing to live at

six in the morning. The hired assassin, José Vicente Acosta, alias

“Pacheco”, was detained by military units assigned to the mobile brigade

number 2 and immediately put free. The campesino was being constantly

accused by the militaries of being a supporter of the insurgency, including

being held prisoner by these slanderers in the year 2004.

2. THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, JANUARY, 2009, around 8:30 in the evening, in

the moments that they were moving from the urban center of the district of

El Palo to the village of El Alto de El Palo, JULIAN SANCHEZ, the

President of the Pro Constitution Association of the Reserva Campesina

Zone of the Municipality of Caloto, GERARDO BARON AVIRAMA Human

Rights Director for the Pro Constitution Association and member of the

South East Colombian Human Rights Network “Francisco Isaías Cifuentes”,

and JAMES BARON AVIRAMA, member of the Pro Constitution

Association, member of FENSUAGRO-CUT, were arbitrarily detained by a

military group of the Colombian state belonging to the Infantry Battalion

Number 8 “Pichincha Battalion” (under the command of Lieutenant Moreno)

who were in a high grade of drunkenness. In the place where this was

happening, a soldier addressed himself to compañero JULIAN SANCHEZ,

and demanded that he direct himself to a dark place remote from the main

road, to which JULIAN refused to walk. Subsequently, the soldier physically

and verbally attacked him, while the rest of the Colombian State military

unlatched and loaded the arms they were commissioned. Seeing the

situation of brutal aggression on the part of these soldiers, GERARDO

BARON AVIRAMA identified himself as a human rights defender and made

known that, as members of the state forces, they must have the training and

knowledge of the Human Rights material, as much the Military Forces as the

Police. He asked them where they were taking him [JULIAN] and he

demanded that they cease attacking him physically. The soldiers

proceeded to hit him repeatedly in the arms and chests and verbally

attacked GERARDO BARONA AVIRAMA and to say that they were taking

JAMES BARONA AVIRAMA. But finally, after so much verbal and physical

aggression, they let the three arbitrarily detained persons go.

3. SUNDAY, JANUARY 4, 2009, compañero DIEGO RICARDO RASEDO

GUEVARA, member of the Agrarian Association of Santander—ASOGRAS,

was disappeared from the urban center of Sabana de Torres and found

murdered the 7th

day of January, 2009, in a farm near the Municipality of

Sabana de Torres with a death shot to the head.

4. THE DAY OF JANUARY 8TH, 2009, the woman, GLORIA RASEDO

GUEVARA, mother of DIEGO RICARDO RASEDO GUEVARA, was the

object of various verbal threats from unknown persons, where they made it

know that she must abandon her town unless she wanted to run into the

same luck as her son.

5. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 13, 2009, La Cominera village, La Dominga

farm, Municipality of Palmira, Department of Cauca, around 5:30 in the

afternoon, FRANCISCO JAVIER CAPERA REMISO, with the identity

number of 5.972.550 from Ortega Tolima, member of the Pro Constitution

Association of Reserva Campesina Zone of the Municipality of Corinto,

member of FENSUAGRO-CUT, found himself in the company of his son,

ANDRES CAPERA PRADA, a minor of 10 years of age, undertaking

outdoor work clearing and sowing blackberries. He [FRANCISCO] was hit

by shards from an explosive artifact. Subsequently he was carried to the

municipal hospital and there was remitted to the Valle de Lili Foundation

Clinic, in the city of Cali. He was diagnosed with multiple traumas from the

explosives, with fractures, hematomas, and damage to the facial skin tissue.

He was incapacitated for 30 days. It is fitting to note that in the zone where

these incidents occurred, there is the permanent presence of the National

Army belonging to the Engineers Battalion No. 3 “Augustín Codazzi” and of

a provisional military detachment of the Infantry Battalion No. 8, “Pichincha

Battalion”. The Military groups carry out constant operations.

6. Friday, January 16, 2008, Barrio el Mirador, around 5:30 in the afternoon,

in the moments that the Compañero ARLED SAMBONI GUACA,

identification number 16.932.895 from Popayán, member of the Campesino

Workers Association de Argelia, ASCAMTA, affiliate of FENSUAGRO-CUT,

in the moment that he was receiving a visit from his father, JOSE RODRIGO

SAMBONI, ARLED SAMBONI GUACE went out of his house in the

company of his six year old son to go to a commercial establishment to

make a phone call. ARLED noticed two individuals were following him. He

accelerated his pace and tried to return to his residence, but was

intercepted by the two subjects who were following him, and they shot him

repeatedly with a firearm, hitting him with seven bullets in various parts of

his body. Three shots were to the side of his head, killing him instantly. The

cruelest of all is the drama and the psychological trauma caused to his six

year old son who saw his father brutally murdered. It should be noted that

ARLED, in the month of September, 2008, had been threatened and forcibly

displaced with his immediate family by the Narco-paramilitaries calling

themselves the “Rastrojos” (Translators Note: Weeds). The father of

ARLED, JOSE RODRIGO SAMBONI, who is presently the Financial Officer

of the Campesino Workers Association of the Municipality of Argelia,

ACAMTA, also in the month of September, 2008, was threatened and

forcibly displaced with his immediate family by the Rastrojos. The same day

that ARLED was murdered, in the evening hours, his wife, SANDRA

JIMENA BASTIDAS, received a telephone call in which unknown persons

told her, “It is better that you keep quiet, if you do not want the same thing to

happen to you.”

7. SATURDAY, JANUARY 17, 2008, Barrio el Mirador, in the morning hours,

the citizen SANDRA JIMENA BASTIDAS, identification number

34.315.769, from Popayán, received anew a telephone call in which

unknown persons said to her, “It is better that you keep quiet, if you do not

want the same thing to happen to you.” In the month of September, 2008,

she had been forcibly displaced by Narco-paramilitaries calling themselves

the Rastrojos, along with her husband ARLED SAMBONI GUACA and their

two young sons of six and eight years respectively. Now she must confront

this situation alone and see the absurd psychological trauma that they made

for her son to see how he was ripped out of the hands of his father,

murdered in cold blood by criminals who openly parade about in the

presence of the military in this zone.

WE DEMAND THAT THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT

1. Immediately initiate the process of investigation of the assassinations of the

compañeros ADOLFO TIQUE, DIEGO RICARDO RASEDO GUEVARA,

ARLED SAMBONI GUACA, who were murdered by unknown persons.

2. Investigate concerning the threats to the victims’ families.

3. Investigate concerning the deeds that have generated displacement,

persecution, threats, and murders of our affiliates, leaders, and directors of

FENSUAGRO.

WE ASK OF THE NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY

1. Call on the national government to guarantee the life, physical and

psychological integrity, and the right to stay in their territory for our leaders and

affiliates, and to freely exercise union and organizational activity.

2. Reject these types of actions that cause the mourning of the social, labor, and

popular organizations, since their goal is to sow terror in the campesino

communities, that are victims of the development and implementation of

“Democratic Security” (“Segurdiad Democratica”)*.

3. Continue following and monitoring the grave situation of human rights violations

that cross through the Departments of Cauca, Tolima, and Santander.

AIDEE MORENO IBAGUE

SERCRETARIA NACIONAL DE DERECHOS HUMANOS

FENSUAGRO – CUT

COLOMBIA

*: “Seguridad Democrática” or “Democratic Security” is the policy being pursued by the

administration of Colombian Pres. Alvaro Uribe to achieve “security” in Colombia through

aggressive military action and repression rather than through good faith negotiations to end the civil

war. The process has led to widespread abuses, including the displacement of millions of farming,

indigenous, and Afro-Colombian communities, an increase in the murders of these populations and

of union members (the hardest hit being the FENSUAGRO union of farmers and farm workers), and

the widespread scandal of “false positives”, wherein Colombian military personnel frequently

commit arbitrary arrests (there are over 7,200 political prisoners in Colombian jails) and murders of

innocent persons, and then dress the cadavers in guerrilla uniforms or otherwise “identify” them as

insurgents, seeking to fill quotas demanded by the government to give the impression of progress in

the war. Especially during the past year, such scandals have resulted in the excavation of a mass

grave of “false positives” in Soaca, Colombia as well as several other cases of extra-judicial killings

that have led to the firing and the arrests of some military personnel. Unaffected, however, are

those highest up on the chain of command, including Pres. Uribe, who is known to have extensive

ties to paramilitaries and narco-traffickers. During these years of the Uribe Administration and the

policy of “Democratic Security”, murders of unionists have increased by 70% and forced

displacements by 40%. For those of us in the US, it is important to note that our government

maintains a close alliance with Pres. Uribe and gives over $600 million a year to the Colombian

military. Pres. Obama has spoken out publicly against the abuses committed against unionists in

Colombia. However, he has also said that the close relationship of the US and Colombia, including

its military support, will continue along the same path as before under his administration.