ATTACKS ON WOMEN’S GROUP CONTINUE IN COLUMBIA

Paramilitary atrocities against activists in Colombia never end. News is just coming out about the brutal attack last week on Ines Pena, a coordinator at the Organizacion Femenina Popular (OFP), the Popular Women's Organization. Pena was forced by two armed men to get into a red van in Barrancabermeja, Santander Department. She was then driven around the city and her feet were scalded with boiling water and her head shaved. As she was being tortured, she was told "That's because we want you out of OFP." The woman was then abandoned on the side of the road near the ‘Luis F. Castellano’ theater, a zone normally presided by regular troops and her assailants left undisturbed.

The previous day, three members of the OFP, including the president Yolanda Becerra, that were accompanying a foreign humanitarian commission, were attacked while traveling on a boat along the Magdalena River. Gunmen opened fire on the boat from the banks but no one was hit.

Numerous members have been persecuted, forced to flee or killed over the years. The last victim, in order of time, was Esperanza Amaris Miranda, abducted in front of her daughter and assassinated 16 October 2003. On several occasions, Esperanza had reported to judicial authorities receiving death threats from paramilitary groups intent on “silencing the voice of women denouncing human rights violations in the region”.

According to the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, these two new episodes are part of the “campaign of violence and persecution for years aimed at OFP members”, among the most significant women’s organizations of Colombia, founded over 30 years ago and that today counts around 1,500 members.

The OFP has refused to cooperate with paramilitary groups and thus continues to encounter antagonism from these groups, principally the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC). The AUC has staged numerous documented threats to the OFP. Other threats, often more severe, have designated the OFP as a direct target. The paramilitaries also apparently told community members that they would kill off more OFP members.

Numerous members have been persecuted, forced to flee or killed over the years. The last victim, in order of time, was Esperanza Amaris Miranda, abducted in front of her daughter and assassinated 16 October 2003. On several occasions, Esperanza had reported to judicial authorities receiving death threats from paramilitary groups intent on “silencing the voice of women denouncing human rights violations in the region”. Sources: MISNA, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch

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