Colombia-Repression Unmasked
Agudelo, Carlos
During a month-long journey through Europe last year, the President of Colombia, Julio Cesar Turbay Ayala, gave assurances that his government was not violating human rights. Before several...
...The mission also investigated assassinations, disappearances, imprisonments and attacks, concentrating particularly on peasant communities and Indian settlements under military jurisdiction...
...It was against this tableau that the Amnesty International report was made public...
...To begin with, the international organization recommended lifting the state of siege since, "most of the human rights violations such as indiscriminate and massive political arrests, prolonged imprisonment without trial, torture, summary trials of civilians by military courts, and political assassinations have been aided, directly or indirectly, to a large extent, by the prolonged state of siege in force almost uninterruptedly since 9 November 1949...
...According to them one of their main goals was to denounce the existence of political prisoners in Colombia...
...But the state of siege continues...
...With regard to the right of defense and the use of Military Tribunals, the report points out that between 1966 and 1973 almost 5000 court-martials took place...
...The government has chosen to fight the evidence with a campaign of silence and denials...
...During that debate, the government and the civilian and military authorities denied the existence of political prisoners as well as any violations of human rights, alleging that the denunciations of torture were the result of a plan conceived by subversive agents intent on discrediting the government...
...The recommendations of Amnesty International to the Colombian government encompass, for the most part, the demands made by most of the groups affected by the human rights situa42 tion in Colombia...
...The 44-page report, furthermore, was made public at a specifically critical moment...
...The takeover of the Dominican Republic Embassy by the M-19 had already drawn world attention to violations of human rights in Colombia...
...To support his claim, the President invited Amnesty International, whose headquarters are located in the British capital, to prove that all the accusations were lies propagated by subversive agents with the intent of discrediting and destabilizing his government...
...And torture as a weapon against "subversion" thrives in military garrisons...
...The outcome of the negotiations following the takeover of the Dominican Embassy has been defined by the Colombian government as a victory...
...Inadvertently it also reinforced and legitimized the stated reason for the takeover of the Dominican Embassy by guerrillas from an organization called M-19 on February 27, approximately a month before the report was released...
...confirmed that, "The mission was able to identify 33 centers where torture has been reported, ranging from psychological torture to beatings, burnings and drugs and electric shocks...
...Amnesty International accepted the invitation...
...the amount obtained was only $2.5 million...
...Very few of the M-19 demands were accepted...
...In many instances, these arrests have been accompanied by torture...
...report in March of this year created a MaylJune 1980 political hurricane since it was printed in full by the major newspapers of the country...
...Yet even though the report appears to have undermined what little credibility the government still holds, Turbay remains extremely cynical in his denial of the accusations...
...Finally, Amnesty International recommends that the government institute effective measures to protect refugees, to allow freedom of expression, and to guarantee the political rights of professionals...
...it also recommends the review of the Constitutional Reform of 1979 and the new Penal Code...
...Journalists who travelled to Colombia to cover the incident were afforded the opportunity to observe Colombian democracy in action...
...The poor turnout at the polls gave rise to the hope of finding the government less intransigent about negotiating a solution to the hostage situation...
...The day after the takeover the newspapers printed articles reporting the existence of political prisoners in Colombia...
...But the expected reprisal of the military, particularly against the Left, forced most of the opposition sectors to be cautious in their actions...
...The President, the armed forces and the official press stressed the fact that in the negotiations the Constitution had not been violated and that Colombian democracy had survived the crisis...
...The findings of this highly-respected organization clarified the doubts in the minds of many Colombians with regard to the government and the violation of human rights...
...He even had the temerity to call on the OAS Human Rights Commission to prove that Amnesty's report was false...
...In a press release issued on April 12, A.I...
...At the same time, the majority of the traditional parties which control the state apparatus lined up behind the nonegotiations stance assumed by the President and his ministers...
...Notwithstanding the press reports, President Turbay and his ministers chose to ignore the demands for the prisoners' release, instead issuing statements portraying them as common criminals...
...Before several news reporters in London, Turbay asserted that he in fact was the only political prisoner in Colombia, condemned as he was to serving his country selflessly...
...The political prisoners were not freed and none of the documents and manifestos of the M19 were published in the major newspapers of the world as requested by the guerrillas...
...Considering the worldwide publicity the Iranian situation had received, the taking of 15 ambassadors as hostages in a single operation could hardly have gone unnoticed...
...by the mission clearly' demonstrated that imprisonment on the grounds of political belief does exist in Colombia, that it is not limited to the violent opposition and that many individuals have been arrested solely for the nonviolent exercise of their human rights...
...So did the U.S...
...This lack of popular support, demonstrated the already generalized skepticism towards the government, much of which stemmed from the visible corruption rampant among bureaucrats for whom the state budget is viewed as nothing more than the spoils of war...
...these military tribunals sentenced more than 3800 civilians...
...The mission sent to Colombia in January spent 15 days meeting with numerous government officials, individuals from various political and mass organizations, and current and former prisoners and their families...
...The release of the A.I...
...The March legislative elections, which took place while the Embassy was still being held, registered a record voters' abstention of 73...
...Definitively, the takeover of the Embassy, one month before the report of Amnesty International was published, turned the attention of the world to the battered condition of human rights in Colombia...
...Specifically, with regard to peasants, it was determined that in 1973 peasants who belonged to the Regional Council of the Cauca Area (CRIC) were assassinated...
...41update * update * update * update Amnesty's Findings Amnesty's report states that the visit to Colombia, "took place in the midst of a national debate centered on the subject of human rights...
...Originally the M-19 demanded $50 million...
...according to the guerrillas, they numbered more than 300...
...The internal security statutes are still applied against civilians in hastily organized military courts...
...MaylJune 1980 The ransom money given to the guerrillas was obtained from a private source who negotiated individually on behalf of some of the hostages...
...Nevertheless, the investigation undertaken...
...Among other abuses of established legal procedures, denial of the right of habeas corpus or the recourse to appeal is institutionalized, and the government, after consultation with the ministers, is given the authority to imprison for ten days any individuals suspected of subverting the public peace...
...Their deaths were denounced, "but the government has not yet taken any measures for the protection of the peasants' lives...
...The M-19 also claimed victory...
...As Commander Uno, chief of the M-19 operation, affirmed during an interview from the Embassy, "We want to show to world opinion that here in Colombia there are political prisoners, that people are tortured...
...Adding Fuel to the Fire The plebiscite-like nature of the visit conferred an enormous weight to these recommendations...
...The report also recommends the abolition of the "state of national security" which encompasses laws in violation of numerous international pacts...
...Their conclusions and recommendations were conveyed to the Colombian government, as well as made public in an Amnesty International report...
...During the summary trials practically all international agreements on the rights of prisoners to a defense were systematically violated...
...Thus, "Amnesty International recommends that the Colombian government transfer to ordinary courts all the trials in progress against civilians sentenced by the Military Courts, whether or not their actions are related or allegedly related to armed movements of opposition...
Vol. 14 • May 1980 • No. 3
