Results of the battle against impunity in Colombia to December IAPA Rapid Response Unit - Colombia

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1 ResultsofthebattleagainstimpunityinColombiatoDecember2009 IAPARapidResponseUnit- Colombia Withfivenewconvictionsin2009thebattleagainstimpunityincrimesagainstjournalistsshowed progressincolombiaasregardsperpetratorsofsuchcrimes.theseconvictionsundoubtedlyare an achievement if one takes into account that in the last 10 years( ) there had been only19convictionsinthecasesof59journalistsmurderedforreasonstodowiththeirworkover thelast16years. TableNo. 1. CONVICTIONS Totalofconvictions: 24in15cases 23ofthemperpetrators 1mastermind, notjailed Thefiveconvictionsmadein2009wereinthefollowingcases:FlavioBedoyaTovar,murdered on April 27, A paramilitary confessed to having killed the correspondent of the weekly newspaper Voz in Tumaco, Nariño province, and on October 2, 2009 Jorge Enrique Ríos Córodbawasfoundguiltyofaggravatedhomicideasco-perpetratorandsentencedto10yearsin prison. Anotther three convictions were handed down for the April 6, 2003 murder of José Emeterio Rivas.OnJanuary13,2009convictedasco-perpetratorsofthemurderwereJulioCesarArdila, former mayor of Barrancabermeja, former mayor s office secretary Fabio Pajón Lizcano and former provincial legislature candidate Abelardo Rueda Tobón, to 26 years and 8 months in prison. InthecaseofjournalistElacioMurilloMosquera,manageroftheCaneleteStereoradiostation in Istmina, Chocó province, convicted was Franklin Isnel Díaz, a.k.a. Juancho, as coperpetrator,beingfoundtohavedriventhemotorcycleonwhichthehitmanfled. Inthebattleagainstimpunityofnoteareotherdevelopmentsthatwouldseemtobepromising and these are the results of no less than 10 crime cases that have begun to be reactivated thanks to voluntary statements made by paramilitaries to public prosecutors from the Attorney General s Office s Justice and Peace Division, thanks to a suggestion of ours, taken up by

2 formerprosecutormarioiguarán, toincludethequestionofcrimesagainstjournalistsinthose inquiries. ThemurdersofMartínLaRotta,LuisEduardoAlfonso,JaimeRengifoReveroandGustavoRuiz Cantilloareonthepointofbeingsolvedbythatroute. AlsointhecasesofthemurderofthemanagingeditorofLaPatrianewspaper,OrlandoSierra, killedonjanuary30,2002,andthatofjaimegarzón,therehavebeendevelopments.inthefirst case the Attorney General s Office asked the State Attorney to consider Caldas politicians as havingbeenbehindthemurderduringitsinvestigationandinthesecondcasethestateattorney calledinforquestioningaformerofficialofthenationalsecjuritydepartment(das)andopened aninvestigationintothepossibleparticipationofmembersofthearmyinthemurder. Theseare,however,onlyafewthingsthatpointtoaneffectiveandprobinginvestigationonthe part of the State Attorney s Office that have led to positive outcomes in the courts, as the five convictions handed down last year only concern the murder of three journalists, with inquiries needingtocontinueinordertodeterminewhomastermindedthecrimes,whichcontinuestobe theaspectinwhichimpunityincolombiais100%.withtheexceptionoftheconvictionofcarlos Castaño, head of the paramilitary movement Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia, now dead, as having been behind the murder of Jaime Garzón, there is no convicted mastermind in the country. The possibility of identifying the masterminds in another two cases faded last year when a federaljudgeacquittedtheallegedmastermindoftheapril24,2009murderofjournalistjosé EverardoAguilarandinthecaseofNelsonCarvajalCarvajal,killedinPitalito,Huilaprovince, on April 16, 1998, the Attorney General s Office decided to stop investigating former Huila LegislatureSpeakerCarlosAugustoRojasduringthelegalprocess. InColombiaatotalof131journalistsweremurderedbetween1993and2009.TheIAPA srapid ResponseUnitwasabletoestablishthat59ofthemwerekilledforreasonslinkedtotheirwork asnewsmenorwomen,22casesremaininagreyareaduetothedifficultyofdeterminingthe motivesandtheother50werekilledforreasonsotherthantodowiththeirworkasjournalists. TableNo. 2: HOMICIDES

3 Therearecasesofthehomicideofjournalistsinwhichthereisnotevenanysignofasuspect. These are cases that have remained for more than 15 years at the same stage of preliminary investigation,suchasthoseofcarloslajudcatalán(1993),gerardobedoya(1995),francisco CastroMenco(1997),JairoElíasMárquez(1997)andDidierAristizábal(1998),amongothers.Of the59cases29remainatthatso-calledpreliminarystage. Atotalof16ofthose59murdersthatwefoundhadtowiththevictims workasjournalistshave been shelved or suspended. These are proceedings that are scattered among various public prosecutorsofficesaroundthecountry,whicharenotbeingdealtwithbytheattorneygeneral s Office s Human Rights Division in Bogotá and on which we have asked the National Public ProsecutorsOfficesDirectorateforadetermination,withoutresult. Therehavebeen12acquittals,meaningthat19.29%ofthetrialshaveendedwithnoonehaving beenfoundguilty. TableNo. 3: STATEOFLEGALPROCEEDINGSINTHE59CASES (theydonottotal59,somemaybeatonestageandreturntoanotherwhenthere isabreakincontinuityoftheprocess) In 2009, the IAPA s Rapid Response Unit was able to determine that the legal process in the casesofmurderofthreejournalistshavebeenstalledforayear,withnokindofinvestigationon thepartofthecolombianattorneygeneral soffice.thesearethecasesofgerardobedoya, op-ed pages editor of the newspaper El País, murdered on March 20, 1997 in Cali, Valle del Cauca; Ernesto Acero Cadena, reporter with radio stations Todelar and Súper and the newspaperelinformadorsocioeconómicoinquindío,killedondecember12,1995inarmenia, Quindio, and Alejandro Jaramillo Barbosa, editor of the newspaper El Caleño, murdered on October24,1997inPasto,Nariño. Inanothersixcasesthelatestlegalactionwasbeingtakeninthefirstfourmonthsofthisyear January-April 2009 with the results being unknown. They are the cases of Lajud Catalan, sports commentator for Emisoras ABC radio network, murdered on March 19, 1993 in Barranquilla.Theinvestigationwassuspendedforthreeyears,thenreactivatedattherequest oftheiapainoctober2007.accordingtothestateattorney sofficeinvolvementofofficialsof

4 the DIJIN (Investigative Police Directorate) has been requested, but no response has been received. Asimilarthinghashappenedinothercases neitherhastherebeenanyprogressinthecase of Francisco Castro Menco, a reporter with radio station Majagual, murdered on November 8, 1997 in Sucre province, while the same is happening with the case of Jairo Elías Márquez, editor of the magazine El Marqués, murdered in Armenia, Quindio, on March 20, The latestdevelopmentreportedinthiscasefileisthedeathofformercongressmancarlosalberto OviedoAlfaro,atonetimesaidtobetheallegedmastermindofthemurder. Still to be determined are the motives for 22 other murders committed during the same period ( ) and what is more painful is the fact that it is not known if action is being taken concerning 43 murders committed between 1987 and 1992, whose cases do not even appear in the records of the Colombian Attorney General s Office. ConvictionsinColombiatoDECEMBER perpetrators, 1mastermind. Total: 24 Case: FreddyEllesAhumada EdgarAntonioMattos-40years In1998bycourtinCartagena Case: ElsaAlvaradoandMarioCalderón JuanCarlosGonzálesJaramillo- 60years WalterJosuéÁlvarezRivera-55years VanderleyVargasGarcía-55months GabrielJaimeÄlvarezPaniagua-20months OnNovember21, 2000byBogotáSpecialistCourt Case: BernanbéCortés JulioCesarOspinaChavarro-40years OnMay2, 2002, bycalifirstcircuitcourt Case: AmparoLeonorJiménez LibardoPradaBayona-37years In2002, sentencedbyvalleduparhighcourt Case: LuisAlbertoRincónandAlbertoSánchez

5 OrlandoSánchez-19years GregorioCastilloCastilla- 19years OnJuly26, 2002, convictionsbybucaramangaspecialistcourts Case: GuzmánQuinteroTorres JorgeEliécerEspinelVelásquez-39yearsand3months RodolfoNelsonRosado-39yearsand3months OnMarch13, 2002, convictionsbyvalleduparhighcourt Case: OrlandoSierra LuisFernandoSotoZapata-sentencedto19yearsand6months.Served67months ( fiveyears) FranciscoAntonioQuintero LuisArletOrtiz OnMay8, 2002andinNovember2004 ConvictionsbyManizalesCircuitCriminalCourt Case: JaimeGarzón Amastermindwasconvicted CarlosCastaño-servednotoneday.Hediedthatsameyear OnMarch10, BogotáSeventhSpecialistCourt Case: WilliamSotoCheng MiguelAngelGarcés-numberofyearsbeingchecked In2006 Case: EfraínVarelaforjusticeandpeace AndrésDarioCervantes-13yearsand5months In2007

6 Case: JoséEmeterioRivas: JulioCesarArdila-28yearsand4months FabioPajónLizcano AbelardoRuedaTobón InJanuary2009, BucaramangaFirstCourt WolmanSaidSepúlveda-26yearsand8months PabloEmilioDodino-26yearsand8months InDecember2008 Case: ElacioMurilloMosquera FranklinIsnelDiazMosquera-408months( 34years) OnJanuary9, 2009, bythequibdospecialistcourt Case: FlavioBedoyaSarria JorgeEnriqueRíosCórdoba-10years OnOctober2, 2009 *Shownaretheprincipalsentenceshandeddown.Therecouldhave beensentencereductionsandotherlegalentitlements.andyetto beresolvediswhethertheyhaveservedtheirsentenceorhave alreadyleftprison.

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