Urgent Action - Colombia: Governmental offensive against the ACVC, raided the regional office.
In the district of El Cagüi, in the surroundings of the swamp of San Lorenzo, rural area of the town of Cantagallo (south of Bolivar) in Colombia, members and directives of the ACVC (Campesino Association of the Valley of the River Cimitarra), Andres Gil, Evaristo Mena and Oscar Duque were detained by agents of Administrative Department of Security (DAS). The members of ACVC were at a meeting with the community. Since the peasants put resistance, the agents made shots to the air.
Andres and Oscar are founders of the ACVC and part of the directives. Oscar had been detained on October 5, 2006 but had been released.
At the same time in the city of Barrancabermeja, Santander, the office of the ACVC was raided. Fifty soldiers together with the DAS arbitrarily detained 5 people from the office and adjoining apartment but they were later released. Mario Martinez, another directive of the ACVC, was arrested in his apartment.
Andres Gil, Evaristo Mena, Oscar Duque and Mario Martinez have been taken from Barrancabermeja to the department capital, Bucaramanga, and are being detained in the DAS facility.
We demand that the legal rights of the directives of the ACVC de respected and fair and that they be able to appear before competent civil authorities.
We reject this new offensive by state authorities against the ACVC which is a legally constituted and legitimate organization. The ACVC negotiated with the government in July of 2007 to overcome the humanitarian crisis of the region.
We call urgently for national as well as international solidarity to intercede with the Colombian Government for the social and community organization of the region of the Magdalena Medio and for the life of the members of the ACVC.
Please contact:
Batallón Nueva Granada
Teniente Coronel Jorge Horacio Romero Pinzón
Mayor Perdomo
Teléfonos: 097 6223238 ó 097 6223205
Presidencia de la República
Dr. Álvaro Uribe Vélez, Presidente de la República
