Dear Attorney General Iguarán: Investigate Assassination of

Dear Attorney General Iguarán: Investigate Assassination of

July 15, 2008
Dr. Mario Hernán Iguarán Arana
Attorney General
Diagonal 22-B #52-01
Bogotá, Colombia
cc.
Rafael Bustamente
Human Rights Director, Interior Minister
Oficina 416
Calle 13 No. 8-38
Bogotá, Colombia.
Headquarters
333 Seventh Avenue
13th Floor
New York, NY 10001
Tel: 212.845.5200
Fax: 212.845.5299
Washington D.C. Office
100 Maryland Avenue, N.E.
Suite 500
Washington, DC 20002
Tel: 202.547.5692
Fax: 202.543.5999
www.humanrightsfirst.org
Dr. Carlos Franco
Presidencial Human Rights Programa
Calle 7 No. 6 – 54
Bogotá, Colombia
Ricardo Alberto Restrepo Londoño
Police Chief, Valle de Cauca Department Cra 1 – Calle 21 No. 1 N-65
Cali, Colombia
Dr. Andrés Santamaria Garrido
Ombudsman Valle del Cauca
Calle 23 A No. 2N 75
Barrio San Vicente
Cali – Valle del Cauca, Colombia
Dr. Juan Carlos Abadía Campo
Governor of Valle del Cauca
Gobernación del Valle del Cauca
Carrera 6 entre calles 9 y 10
Edificio Palacio de San Francisco
Santiago de Cali, Colombia
Colonel Pedro Angelo Franco Sanabria
Buenaventura Police Commander
Dear Attorney General Iguarán:
Investigate Assassination of Displaced Women’s Leader
We the 1,462 signers of this letter join Human Rights First to express our
concern about the murder of Martha Cecilia Obando on June 29 in
Buenaventura. Obando, known as Doña Chila, was an active community and
women’s rights leader in San Francisco, a poor suburb of Buenaventura, Valle
del Cauca. She arrived in Buenaventura as a displaced person, fleeing fighting
from her home town of Charco in Nariño department. She was President of the Association of
Displaced Women in San Francisco (Asociacion de Mujeres Desplazadas del Barrio San
Francisco - ASODESFRAN). ASODESFRAN is a small community organization consisting
mainly of women who have been displaced by Colombia’s internal armed conflict and who
have lost immediate family members to the conflict and are now head of the family.
She was also part of the local Women’s Network for Life (Red Local Madres por la Vida),
which is a community organization for victims of the armed conflict. Women’s Network for
Life seeks collective responses to reduce the levels of violence associated with the conflict. It
also encourages victims of the conflict to seek justice for their human rights violations.
Finally, Obando was also a leader in San Francisco for the government program Families in
Action, which provides monetary assistance to poor families in the area to meet their basic
needs.
Obando was shot by unknown assailants on Sunday, June 29, at approximately 7:45 p.m., in
the main street of San Francisco, and died from three gunshot wounds. We understand that
police are looking for two men, who fled on a motorcycle. She was shot one hour after she
had finished presiding over an awards ceremony for a children’s tournament of traditional
games. Organized by 18 women leaders from San Francisco, the two month-long tournament
was intended to persuade local children to take up traditional games, rather than engaging in
violence via computer games or by joining gangs or illegal armed groups.
We are concerned that Obando’s killing may have been linked to her various human rights
projects. The fact that she was killed shortly after organizing a tournament which was aimed
at deterring young people from engaging in violence, suggests that gangs or illegal armed
groups may be responsible for her murder. According to media reports, police have attributed
the killing to drug traffickers and paramilitaries. We understand that many women leaders
who worked with Obando in Buenaventura now also fear for their safety. We also understand
that human rights organizations in Buenaventura have apparently received death threats from
paramilitary groups.
As a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Inter-American
Convention on Human Rights, Colombia should uphold the right to life. The human rights
committee has held that Colombia has a positive “duty to investigate thoroughly alleged
violations of human rights… and to prosecute criminally, try and punish those held
responsible for such violations1.”
We call on you to immediately investigate the killing of Obando and to prosecute those
responsible. We also call on the government to publicly condemn the murder and evaluate the
risk of other women leaders in Buenaventura to determine if they need additional state
protection.
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Thank you for your attention in this urgent matter. We will continue to closely monitor this
situation.
Sincerely,
The names of the 1,462 participants have been withheld from the public version of this letter
for privacy reasons.
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