CPTnet
July 24, 2003
COLOMBIA: CPT accompanies government human rights workers

Team members provided international accompaniment for functionaries of
the Defensoria del Pueblo, a governmental human rights agency, on June 19,
2003 as they travelled home with a man whom the Colombian army had taken
captive earlier that week.

On Sunday, June 15, three Colombian Army boats entered the Cienaga (Lake)
of Cagui, north of Barrancabermeja. The military claimed there was a
confrontation with members of the FARC guerilla group, but local
residents say the army entered without any resistance. According to
residents, the army docked at the house of a seventy year old woman, and
opened fire, killing the woman. The military then proceeded to the town,
across the shallow lake, where they captured two drunk guerillas in
uniform, and a third man. The army took this third man to Barrancabermeja,
where he was later cleared of any links with the illegal armed group. The
Defensoria decided to accompany the man to his home.

Because the agency is constantly under threat by the paramilitaries for its
investigation and denunciation of human rights violations, the Defensoria
requested CPT's accompaniment through any paramilitary checkpoints along
the river. The man's family and friends greeted him with relieved hugs,
and the man was grateful to be able to return.

After seeing the man to his home, the team stopped at the elderly woman's
house. Roughly broken tree branches suggested that a spray of bullets had
felled them. CPTers photographed bullet holes in the wooden planks of the
house, in the roof, and in a gazebo.