COLOMBIA: INVESTIGATE THREATS AGAINST CREDHOS

Dear Attorney General,

I am concerned about the risks to the lives, safety, and security of human rights defenders, particularly members of the civil society organization, Corporación Regional para la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos (CREDHOS), in the municipality of Puerto Wilches, Santander department, in Colombia’s Magdalena Medio region.

On June 1, a leaflet supposedly signed by the armed group Autodefensas Conquistadoras de la Sierra Nevada (ACSN) was publicly distributed, declaring several people in Puerto Wilches to be “military objectives” of the group and ordering them to leave the municipality within 48 hours. Those threatened included members of CREDHOS’s municipal human rights committee.

Furthermore, this threat is one in a series of threats and attacks committed in recent months by armed groups in the Magdalena Medio region, including the Ejército Gaitanista de Colombia (EGC). These attacks have targeted members of CREDHOS and directly affected their work defending the human rights of communities across the municipalities of Santander, Bolívar, and Antioquia.

I urge you to exercise the utmost diligence in effectively fulfilling the Attorney General’s Office’s duty to investigate the threats and attacks against members of CREDHOS, establish who is responsible for ordering and carrying out these acts, and bring those responsible to justice in fair trials.

Yours sincerely,

[YOUR NAME]