April 28, 2011
Assistant Secretary of State Arturo Valenzuela
Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs
Washington, DC 20520-6258

Dear Asst Sec. Valenzuela:

We acknowledge some modest and spotty progress on human rights since the horrific events of the l990s and early 2000s. However, we strongly reject your statement that the Colombian government has achieved remarkable progress” in restoring peace and security to the country. On the contrary, in many cases Colombian forces and their official allies are perpetrators, not problem solvers, when it comes to human rights abuses. Targets remain labor organizers and human rights advocates.

Let us look at this month’s news from Colombia for evidence from a variety of credible organizations.
1) Inter American Commission on Human rights Colombia Report, 18 April 2011. The report underlines the “continued existence of circumstantial or structural situations that, for various reasons, seriously and gravely affect the enjoyment and exercise of the basic rights enshrined in the American Convention on Human Rights.”
2) On 14 April 2011, two men tried to break into the home of Zoraida Hernandez, President of human rights NGO Corporacion Sembrar, in Bogota, Colombia. Amnesty International is concerned for the safety of Zoraida Hernandez and members of Corporacion Sembrar.
3) Paramilitaries’ Heirs the New Face of Violence in Colombia, a 122 page report by Human Rights Watch documents widespread and serious abuses by successor groups to the paramilitary coalition known as the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia. The use names such as Agila Negra etc.
4) Astrocatol, a union of peasant farmers affiliated to FENSUAGRO, has rexported that its President, Jailer Gonzalez was arbitrarily arrested by troops of the eighth Mobile Brigade on April 16. His arrest closely follows the killing on the 30th of March of Hector Orozco, the Vice-President of the Astrocatol Chaparral section, and Gildardo Garcia, a lay member of the union, less than 4000 meters from an army checkpoint.

Sincerely, Gail S Phares