Colombia
29.11.01
Urgent Interventions
Colombia: torture and murder of Mr. Leonardo Díaz Becerra, others missing
Case COL 291101
The International Secretariat of the OMCT requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in Colombia :
Brief description of the situation:
The International Secretariat of the OMCT has been informed of the torture and the murder of Mr. Leonardo Díaz Becerra and the ill-treatment inflicted on his wife, Mrs. Ana Rubiela Cárdenas de Díaz and his four children, in the village of Bonafont, municipality of Riosucio, Department of Caldas.
According to information from the Asociación de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos de Colombia (ASFADDES), on 24 November 2001 at about 4.00am, a number of armed men arrived at the ranch named La Colombianita in Bonafont, Riosucio, the home of Ana Rubiela Cárdenas de Díaz ( sister of Ms. María Eugenia Cárdenas), Leonardo Díaz Becerra and their four children, all minors. The men were dressed in the gear of the national armed forces and wearing armbands bearing the letters AUC (Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia), some of them hooded.
The reports add that the men knocked at the door, and as it was not opened broke a window and entered by force. They proceeded to grab Ana Rubiela Cárdenas de Díaz by her hair and to drag her and her children through the back of the house, insulting them and threatening her with death if she did not admit to hiding weapons and helping the guerrillas., 55, was taken to another part of the house, where his family heard him screaming and sobbing in pain.
As they left, the men told Ana Rubiela Cárdenas de Díaz that she should be thankful they had not killed her husband. Leonardo Díaz Becerra, however, had been fatally wounded in the left part of his chest and was found with his ands tied behind his back and a bible placed over them.
According the reports, these same men went on to force another five persons out of their homes and tie them up in the area “La Rueda” and kill them. These persons’ names remain unknown.
ASFADDES recalls that the family of Ms. has already been the objective of serious human rights violations: on 14 September 1992 Eduardo Anibal Cárdenas García, Miguel Ángel Cárdenas García, Francisco Javier Cárdenas García, Adrián de Jesús Cárdenas García and Anibal Cárdenas Largo were all abducted and later killed. Oscar Reyes Guerrero, aged 21, the nephew of María Eugenia Cárdenas, was also abducted and killed. The continuous death threats and harassment of this family, occurring since 1984, has been duly reported, have been followed up and are known to the Colombian government. All these human rights violations forced the office of ASFADDES in Rioscuro to close definitively.
The International Secretariat of the OMCT shares ASFADDES’s concern for the safety and the physical and psychological integrity of the family of María Eugenia Cárdenas. OMCT again condemns these new occurrences of extreme violence, the severe persecution of the civil population, the apparent impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators and the failure of the authorities to provide effective protection measures to prevent these events.
Requested Action:
Please write to the Colombian Authorities urging them to:
i. take all measures necessary to bring an end to these acts of violence and to guarantee the physical and psychological integrity of the above-mentioned persons;
ii. order a thorough and impartial investigation into the above-mentioned events in order to identify those reponsible, bring them to justice and apply the civil, penal or adminstrative sanctions stipulted by law;
iii. fully execute the recommendations made by international and regional human rights organisations, including those of the High Commission for Human Rights, the United Nations Human Rights Commission, the Inter.American Human Rights Commission as well as national and governmental human rights organisations;
iv. guarantee the respect of human rights and fundamental liberties in all the country in accordance with national law and international human rights norms.
Addresses
· S.E. Álvaro Uribe Vélez, Presidente de la República, Cra. 8 n .7-26, Palacio de Nariño, Santafé de Bogotá. Fax: (+57 1) 566 20 71
· Consejería Presidencial de Derechos Humanos, Calle 7 n . 6-54 Piso 3, Santafé de Bogotá, D. C. Fax: (+57 1) 337 13 51
· General Fernando Tapias Stahelin, Comandante de las Fuerzas Militares, Avenida el Dorado con Cra. 52, Santafé de Bogotá. Fax: (+57 1) 222 29 35; e-mail: siden@mindefensa.gov.co ; pilaque@cgm.mil.co
· Mission Permanente de la Colombie auprès de l’Office de las Nations Unies et des institutions spécialisées a Genève. Chemin du Champ d’Anier 17-19, 1209 Genève. Tel : (+41) 22 798 4554, 798 4555. E-mail: mission.colombia@ties.itu.int
Please also write to the embassies of Colombia in your respective country.
Geneva, November 29, 2001
Kindly inform us of any action undertaken quoting the code of this appeal in your reply.
The International Secretariat of the OMCT requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in Colombia :
Brief description of the situation:
The International Secretariat of the OMCT has been informed of the torture and the murder of Mr. Leonardo Díaz Becerra and the ill-treatment inflicted on his wife, Mrs. Ana Rubiela Cárdenas de Díaz and his four children, in the village of Bonafont, municipality of Riosucio, Department of Caldas.
According to information from the Asociación de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos de Colombia (ASFADDES), on 24 November 2001 at about 4.00am, a number of armed men arrived at the ranch named La Colombianita in Bonafont, Riosucio, the home of Ana Rubiela Cárdenas de Díaz ( sister of Ms. María Eugenia Cárdenas), Leonardo Díaz Becerra and their four children, all minors. The men were dressed in the gear of the national armed forces and wearing armbands bearing the letters AUC (Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia), some of them hooded.
The reports add that the men knocked at the door, and as it was not opened broke a window and entered by force. They proceeded to grab Ana Rubiela Cárdenas de Díaz by her hair and to drag her and her children through the back of the house, insulting them and threatening her with death if she did not admit to hiding weapons and helping the guerrillas., 55, was taken to another part of the house, where his family heard him screaming and sobbing in pain.
As they left, the men told Ana Rubiela Cárdenas de Díaz that she should be thankful they had not killed her husband. Leonardo Díaz Becerra, however, had been fatally wounded in the left part of his chest and was found with his ands tied behind his back and a bible placed over them.
According the reports, these same men went on to force another five persons out of their homes and tie them up in the area “La Rueda” and kill them. These persons’ names remain unknown.
ASFADDES recalls that the family of Ms. has already been the objective of serious human rights violations: on 14 September 1992 Eduardo Anibal Cárdenas García, Miguel Ángel Cárdenas García, Francisco Javier Cárdenas García, Adrián de Jesús Cárdenas García and Anibal Cárdenas Largo were all abducted and later killed. Oscar Reyes Guerrero, aged 21, the nephew of María Eugenia Cárdenas, was also abducted and killed. The continuous death threats and harassment of this family, occurring since 1984, has been duly reported, have been followed up and are known to the Colombian government. All these human rights violations forced the office of ASFADDES in Rioscuro to close definitively.
The International Secretariat of the OMCT shares ASFADDES’s concern for the safety and the physical and psychological integrity of the family of María Eugenia Cárdenas. OMCT again condemns these new occurrences of extreme violence, the severe persecution of the civil population, the apparent impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators and the failure of the authorities to provide effective protection measures to prevent these events.
Requested Action:
Please write to the Colombian Authorities urging them to:
i. take all measures necessary to bring an end to these acts of violence and to guarantee the physical and psychological integrity of the above-mentioned persons;
ii. order a thorough and impartial investigation into the above-mentioned events in order to identify those reponsible, bring them to justice and apply the civil, penal or adminstrative sanctions stipulted by law;
iii. fully execute the recommendations made by international and regional human rights organisations, including those of the High Commission for Human Rights, the United Nations Human Rights Commission, the Inter.American Human Rights Commission as well as national and governmental human rights organisations;
iv. guarantee the respect of human rights and fundamental liberties in all the country in accordance with national law and international human rights norms.
Addresses
· S.E. Álvaro Uribe Vélez, Presidente de la República, Cra. 8 n .7-26, Palacio de Nariño, Santafé de Bogotá. Fax: (+57 1) 566 20 71
· Consejería Presidencial de Derechos Humanos, Calle 7 n . 6-54 Piso 3, Santafé de Bogotá, D. C. Fax: (+57 1) 337 13 51
· General Fernando Tapias Stahelin, Comandante de las Fuerzas Militares, Avenida el Dorado con Cra. 52, Santafé de Bogotá. Fax: (+57 1) 222 29 35; e-mail: siden@mindefensa.gov.co ; pilaque@cgm.mil.co
· Mission Permanente de la Colombie auprès de l’Office de las Nations Unies et des institutions spécialisées a Genève. Chemin du Champ d’Anier 17-19, 1209 Genève. Tel : (+41) 22 798 4554, 798 4555. E-mail: mission.colombia@ties.itu.int
Please also write to the embassies of Colombia in your respective country.
Geneva, November 29, 2001
Kindly inform us of any action undertaken quoting the code of this appeal in your reply.