Colombia's Marcha Patriotica Activists Receive Death Threats

The political movement Marcha Patriotica denounced a series of death threats Monday night which have been directed at a number of the organization's members including student and campesino leaders since Friday, including prominent Senator Piedad Cordoba.

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On Monday night the movement received an anonymous email saying: “We deplore the death of Marcha Patriotica (members),” quoting four names “as well as the rest of the FARC leaders in (the town Santiago de) Cali. We are not playing motherfuckers, Colombia free of terrorists.”

The party warned “the national and international community” in a communique issued later in the day about “the serious situation of human rights and the constant assassination of Marcha Patriotica members” in the town.

The statement followed a series of public warnings issued earlier on Friday after student leaders, campesino leaders and other members of the March received death threats.

The threats were issued with the promise of economic reward against former Senator Cordoba and six other leaders of Marcha Patriotica. It was signed by a paramilitary group calling itself “Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia,” or ACG.

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A student leader's mother also received an anonymous phone call warning her that she had to leave the town within 24 hours, while campesino leaders have also been subjected to intimidation, according to the organization.

Since the government announced its bilateral cease-fire on Aug. 26 more than a dozen rural, Indigenous and Afro-descendent leaders fighting against mining and other development projects have been killed in Colombia, reported Colombia Informa in mid-September, including eight in the province of Cauca. Thirty-five have been killed across the country since the beginning of the year, according to Somos Defensores human rights group.

In a statement released on Sept. 12, Amnesty International urged Colombian authorities to “take immediate and efficient measures in order to definitely put an end to the series of recent murders of human rights activists and community leaders.”

The government has mostly denied the presence of paramilitary groups in the territory despite mounting evidence that paramilitary-led violence has increased dramatically in recent years, often with the complicity of military forces.