There have been several reports of massive human rights violations in Colombia in the last few days:
President Uribe has decreed a 90-day state of exception in Colombia, in response to a strike by judicial workers - which has left the whole justice apparatus paralyzed, and many criminals free. The Union Central Committees have rejected the state of exception, arguing that this is only a labor issue. Judicial workers are calling for raises in their salaries.
The first decrees issued under the state of exception (or interior commotion), give the authority to the Judicial Supreme Council to replace the striking judicial workers. Notaries will be placed in charge of all civil procedures, including those of adoption.
Police forces have attacked several groups of indigenous people who were demonstrating for their rights in the Cauca Valley. The police forces are said to have continued shooting even as the indigenous people were fleeing away. Army helicopters are circling the area, threatening them. At least twenty three people were injured, an unknown number were arrested.
Three indigenous persons, Leonardo Chocué, Eduardo Cotoina and Pablo Dagua, remain disappeared. They had last been seen fleeing away from the ESMAD (Colombia's riot police), and human rights organizations believe they are in police custody.
In the last week, three indigenous activists, Nicolás Valencia Lemus, Celestino Rivera and Cesar Hurtado Tróchez, were murdered in the Cauca Valley. The latter was resting in his home, when four men came in and shot him.
Posted by marga at October 14, 2008 10:47 AM | TrackBack