Women's
Popular Organization, OFP
Early
in 2001, two ladies, Dora Guzmán and Gloria Amparo Suárez,
members of the Women's Popular Organization, OFP, started to be subjected
to threats, and their Organization's main buildings suffered a number
of attacks attributed to a self-defense group operating in Barrancabermeja.
The Government of Colombia is dealing with these cases through the Threatened
Persons Risk Evaluation Committee. The Armed Forces have devised a special
security plan to protect the Organization's three main buildings. Responsibility
for this lies with the Middle Magdalena Special Operations Commander.
Two persons are currently under special Police protection. Other persons
threatened have decided to accept protective accompaniment from Peace
Brigades International.
In connection with the above events, in November the National Human Rights
and International Humanitarian Law Unit of the Prosecutor General's Office
issued an order For José David Londoño Navarro, Alias "El
gato", the head of one of the groups operating in the communes of
Barrancabermeja, to be kept in preventive detention without bail. The
man in question is held to be responsible for the crimes of conspiracy,
formation of "paramilitary" groups in conjunction with destruction
of protected property, and issuing threats. He is currently in custody
at Barrancabermeja Judicial District Jail.
Modelo
National Prison
In respect of the
case relating to threats issued by inmates indicted for "paramilitarism"
and ordinary crimes -kept in Blocks 4 and 5 of Bogotá Modelo National
Prison- against persons detained for political crimes and kept in Blocks
1 and 2, on May 12, 2000, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
issued cautionary orders in favor of the 115 inmates under threat. The
National Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Unit of the Prosecutor
General's Office is conducting the case, and looking for connections with
other cases relating to the events that took place in the prison on 27
April, 2002, during a riot following a murder. Twenty-five persons died
and others were injured or went missing as a result of the armed struggle
inside the prison. The Eighteenth Prosecutor's Office issued seven restraining
orders for aggravated homicide, attempted aggravated homicide, illegal
carrying of weapons restricted to the Military Forces, and manufacturing
and trafficking in firearms. Two of those accused have since been indicted.
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