Attacks on women and death threats to leaders
Business operations to prevent rightful land restitution have been developing with attacks on Lower Council leaders that inhabit the Humanitarian Zones and Biodiversity Zones of Jiguamiandó and Curvaradó.
Last Friday in Quibdó, Manuel Denis Blandón, community leader and territorial rights defender of his community in Jiguamiandó was the target of a violent attack by relatives of Graciano Blandón.
At first, the relatives verbally insulted him in the courthouse headquarters, falsely accusing him of being responsible for the assassination of Graciano Blandón, which occurred in December of 2009.
The verbal attack occurred when he was attending a hearing in regard to constitutional actions, established in favor of the Afro-Colombian communities.
Minutes later, upon leaving the courthouse, one of Graciano’s relatives attacked him, while he was attempting to mount a motorcycle taxi. Manuel was pushed to the ground by a punch in the face and beaten various times with kicks. The reaction of the people present in the surrounding area forced the withdrawal of the aggressor.
The following day while Manuel was traveling by plane to Apartadó, authorities who identified themselves as part of the Attorney General’s Office, were waiting for him in the Olaya Herrera Airport in Medellin. This airport is a common transit site from Quibdó.
The judicial official said that he had an arrest warrant for the murder of Graciano Blandón. Seconds later, after the prosecution verified Manuel’s identity and verified that the warrant did not exist, they let him get on his flight.
Meanwhile, in properties of the lower community council of Caracolí, Curvaradó, after 9am on Thursday, May 5, eleven men that work as the security scheme for the bad-faith occupiers of the Tuteka cattle company, took a child from the Humanitarian Zone through the entrance door, separating him from the two female leaders that they found him with.
Seven of the men then surrounded Sixta Tulia Pérez and Blanca Rebolledo, who were protecting the Caracolí Humanitarian Zones from the aggressions of the business. The men tore their clothes trying to undress them and one of them whipped Sixta.
The attackers shouted at the women, “this is a warning”, “the boss –referring to Claudía Argote- has money to order the government to do what it should do, to pay and get them to remove you, you who call us paramilitaries.”
In the distance, the well-known paramilitary Pedro Tordecilla was in a house of the bad-faith occupiers and the paramilitary beneficiaries of the Tuteka company. In the same house also usually present is the person known as “Tocayo” and the administrator, José Buitrago.
In the afternoon, in the presence of soldiers from the 17th brigade, the same group of attackers from the Tuteka company yelled at the women “Don’t believe the NGO’s, they are a group of idiots. We came to work the land; we will make people respect the businessmen’s farms. We came to look after the cattle business, we came to give whatever we have to, so that you don’t stand in our way anymore” –implying murdering-.
The leader of the lower council, Liria Rosa García, demanded that the military intervene, without receiving any subsequent action.
Saturday during the sunset, the same attackers tried to surround Blanca Rebolledo again, who was able to escape to the side of Liria Rosa García. The women screamed and managed to get to a cell phone to give notice of their persecution. When the men verified that the call was taking place, José Buitrago threatened to kill Liria Rosa and said that he would cut off her head.
Sunday, in the morning, our Justice and Peace Commission was informed that close to 150 paramilitaries entered the Tesoro Humanitarian Zone. There, after surrounding the area, they asserted that they were there to protect the land restitution, to guarantee the arrival of progress and development with palm, banana and cattle ranching.
Then the paramilitaries left the area and said that they would be attentive to what happened.
Less than 500 meters from the Tesoro Camelias Humanitarian Zone, the bad-faith occupiers continued amplifying the environmental destruction with deforestation and crop plantings, without the consent of the Camelias Lower Council.
Weeks before, the businesswoman of la Tuteka, Claudia Argote, said that she had created an armed group to protect her property
Simultaneously, days before Holy Week, close to 150 paramilitaries located themselves within the collective territory, without the 17th brigade doing anything to guarantee the rights of the Afro-Mestizos. In response to the permanent calls to comply with the Lower Council’s provisional measures created by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the national government of Colombia has not acted effectively to confront the business paramilitarism in its various manifestations.
Inter-Ecclesiastic Commission for Justice and Peace