Threats against Iván Madero Vergel

On 31 July 2017, several organisations and human rights defenders in Colombia reported a new wave of threats and intimidation from members of Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia (AGC), a paramilitary group operating in the country. The group circulated a threatening pamphlet in the municipality of Barrancabermeja, Magdalena Medio, and its surroundings, including the name of several human rights organisations and five human rights defenders: Ivan Madero, David Ravelo, Sonia Nevado, Melkin Castrillon, and Maria Ravelo. The human rights defenders and organisations mentioned in the threatening message are well-known for their work in the Colombian peace process.

Iván Madero Vergel is president of Corporación Regional para la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos– CREDHOS (Regional Corporation for the Protection of Human Rights), an organisation which provides training and education on human rights issues and International Humanitarian Law. David Ravelo Crespo is the secretary of the Board of Directors of CREDHOS. On 20 June 2017, the human rights defender was released on parole after almost 7 years in prison. He had been detained since 14 September 2010, when he was falsely accused of an aggravated homicide committed in 1991. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison. Sonia María Nevado Morales is member of Frente Amplio por la Paz (Broad Front for Peace) and has had an active role in the peace process in Barrancabermeja. Melkin Hernán Castrillón Peña is a campesino leader, Coordinator of the National Secretariat for Human Rights of Juventud Rebelde (Rebellious Youth) and Treasurer of the Asociación Campesina del Valle del Río Cimitarra (Peasant Farmer Association of the Cimitarra River Valley's, ACVC). Maria Leonilda Ravelo Grimaldo is the president of Asociación Nacional de Ayuda Solidaria – ANDAS (National Association for Solidarity Aid) in Barracabermeja. The human rights defender is also member of the Peace Commission in Colombia. 

On 31 July 2017, several organisations and human rights defenders in Colombia reported that AGC was circulating a pamphlet in the region of Barrancabermeja and its surroundings containing death threats against several defenders working on human rights issues and the peace process in the country. In the threatening message, the paramilitary group accused them of colluding with the government and Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC) rebels against the interests of the Colombian people. AGC stated that they would bring them back “en bolsas plasticas picaditos” (chopped up in plastic bags). The pamphlet named CREDHOS, Asociación de Víctimas de Crímenes del Estado – Magdalena Medio (ASORVIMM), ANDAS, ACVC, Juventud Rebelde, among others. The paramilitary group also stated that the following human rights defenders are targets of high military value: Ivan Madero, David Ravelo, Sonia Nevado, Melkin Castrillon, and Maria Ravelo. ACG also stated that: “para su conocimiento no es una amenaza, es una declaracion de guerra, ya estamos en la zona. Ustedes y sus familias lo saben” (“for your knowledge this is not a threat, it is a declaration of war, we are already in the area. You and your family know that”).

On the morning of 30 July 2017, while Maria Leonilda Ravelo Grimaldo and her daughter were participating in a workshop in Comuna 1 of Barracabermeja, several unidentified persons on motorcycles appeared to be monitoring the area and took photos of the human rights defender. Around midday, one of the bikers approached a member of the community and said that the human rights defender should leave the area immediately and never come back. Maria Leonilda Ravelo Grimaldo and her daughter decided to leave the workshop. 

On 28 July 2017, around 10am, Iván Madero Vergel received a call on his cellphone from an unidentified person threatening that if the human rights defender did not stop denouncing human rights violations he would be killed.

This is not the first time that Front Line Defenders has reported on this pattern of threats and intimidation from AGC in the Magdalena Medio region. On 26 November 2016, another pamphlet signed by the paramilitary group promised a financial reward for the killing of Iván Madero Vergel, Lilia Peña Silva, Melkin Hernán Castrillón Peña, Miguel Cifuentes, and Eladio Morales.

On 25 July 2016, an additional pamphlet signed by the AGC was circulated on social media, threatening to kill several human rights defenders, trade unionists and public officials who supported the peace process. The pamphlet was shared directly on the CREDHOS Facebook page and the personal account of one of its members, Andrés Ortiz. The pamphlet was also sent directly to the human rights defender María Ravelo Crespo.

Front Line Defenders is seriously concerned about the situation of human rights defenders in Colombia. In its 2017 Annual Report, Front Line Defenders reported 281 killings of human rights defenders worldwide. 86 of those killings took place in Colombia, making it the country with the highest number of killings of human rights defenders in the world.

According to a report from the Colombian Ombudsman Office, 156 social leaders and human rights defenders have been killed between January 2016 and March 2017. In addition, 5 disappearances, 33 attacks and over 500 threats were reported. According to the Ombudsman, Carlos Alfonso Negret Mosquera: “one of the main causes of this phenomenon is the attempt by illegal armed groups to occupy the territory from which the FARC have withdrawn”.

The Colombian government signed a peace deal with FARC rebels in November 2016, but this has not made the country safer for human rights defenders. Despite all evidence to the contrary, the government continues to maintain the position that these killings are neither systematic nor linked to paramilitary activity.

Front Line Defenders is gravely concerned at the most recent death threats against several human rights defenders and organisations in Colombia, since it believes that these threats are directly related to their human rights activities.

Front Line Defenders urges the authorities in Colombia to:

1. Carry out an immediate, thorough and impartial investigation into the death threats against Iván Madero Vergel, David Ravelo Crespo, Sonia María Nevado Morales, Melkin Hernán Castrillón Peña, and members of several human rights organisations, with a view to publishing the results and bringing those responsible to justice in accordance with international standards;

2. Take all the necessary measures to guarantee the physical and psychological integrity of Iván Madero Vergel, David Ravelo Crespo, Sonia María Nevado Morales, Melkin Hernán Castrillón Peña, as well as members of several human rights organisations mentioned on the threat message;

3. Guarantee in all circumstances that all human rights defenders in Colombia are able to carry out their legitimate human rights activities without fear of reprisals and free of all restrictions;

On 18 July 2016, Mr Iván Madero Vergel received death threats from an anonymous caller who explicitly warned him against continuing his advocacy work and said he would kill him unless he left the country in the next 48 hours. Later he received a text message from the same number, threatening to plant a bomb in his office. A colleague of the human rights defender also received a phone call threatening to kill Iván Madero Vergel. 

Download the Urgent Appeal (PDF)

Iván Madero Vergel is the President of the Corporación Regional para la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos (Regional Corporation for Defending Human Rights, CREDHOS). CREDHOS is an organisation dedicated to denouncing human rights violations and violations of international humanitarian law committed by paramilitary groups and members of the security forces, as well as accompanying victims and survivors, in the region of Magdalena Medio. CREDHOS has spoken out against the influence paramilitary groups exercise over Barrancabermeja and the various acts of intimidation and harassment targeting members of the Corporation. Iván Madero Vergel is a beneficiary of precautionary measures granted by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and protective measures granted by the National Protection Unit (UNP) of Colombia.

In the afternoon of 18 July 2016, Iván Madero Vergel received death threats from an anonymous caller. With extremely offensive language, the caller threatened to kill him if he continued to denounce human rights violations and gave him 48 hours to leave the country ("perro hijueputa, malparido lacra te vamos a picar, te vamos a matar hijueputa, sapo siga metiéndose en lo que no le importa, siga denunciando, tiene 48 horas para salir del país"). Almost immediately afterwards, the secretary of CREDHOS received an anonymous phone call asking her, also with very offensive and vulgar language, to warn Iván Madero Vergel that he should stop looking into peoples' past and that he had 48 hours to leave the country (“oiga perra hijueputa, dígale al señor Iván Madero, que se deje de estar metiendo en lo que no le importa, que deje de estar esculcando en el pasado de las personas, que tiene 48 horas para largarse del país”). Shortly afterwards, the human rights defender received a text message to his mobile phone saying that if he kept denouncing human rights violations they would plant a bomb in his office (“siga denunciando hijueputa, siga recibiendo los sapos en la oficina, que le vamos a meter una bomba”). CREDHOS immediately reported the incident to all corresponding authorities, including the police and the prosecutor's office.

This is not the first time Iván Madero and members of CREDHOS receive death threats. The organisation has seen many of its colleagues killed or forced into exile over the past decades. Front Line Defenders has reported several attacks against its members, including similar death threats to Iván Madero and his family on 25 June 2015, 23 June 2015 and 9 January 2014. On 25 and 26 November 2013, several men – who the organization believed to be paramilitary operatives tasked with monitoring the office - were spotted watching the CREDHOS headquarters building between 9am and 3pm. This incident happened only a few days after classified materials were stolen from the CREDHOS Barrancabermeja headquarters.

On 7 December 2012, spokesperson for CREDHOS, Mr David Ravelo Crespo, was unfairly sentenced to 18 years and 3 months' imprisonment for aggravated murder, after a trial riddled with irregularities. The prosecutor who sentenced him, William Pacheco Granados, was removed from his previous post after an internal investigation determined his involvement into the disappearance of William Hurtado Parra in 1991. Additionally, one of the key witnesses in the trial was a former member of a paramilitary group who is currently being prosecuted for giving false testimony in another case. Despite calls made by civil society and international organisations to quash his conviction, David Ravelo Crespo has been in prison for almost six years for a crime he did not commit. Front Line Defenders has followed the case of David Rabelo Crespo since his detention in September 2010 and continues to call for his release.

There have been expectations internationally and domestically that the progress of the peace negotiations between the State of Colombia and the FARC guerilla would diminish the risk of harm for human rights defenders, however the opposite has been true. Colombia remains one of the most dangerous countries in the world for human rights defenders. Between January and March 2016 20 human rights defenders have been killed, which compares to 19 killed in the same period in 2015 and 16 in 2014. Front Line Defenders found Colombia to be the country with the most killings of HRDs in 2015. According to Colombian civil society organisation "Somos Defensores", efforts to protect human rights defenders must consider the fact that in the last 5 years roughly 90% of threats were issued by paramilitary groups, who vehemently oppose the peace process. Organisations such as CREDHOS, that constantly denounce human rights violations committed by parties in the conflict and seek accountability for victims and survivors, face threats from all actors with vested interests in obstructing justice. CREDHOS is particularly at risk from paramilitary groups, as the Magdalena Medio region has been dominated by paramilitary groups since the mid-1990s.

Front Line Defenders strongly condemns the death threats against Iván Madero Vergel and his family members, as well as the efforts to intimidate members of CREDHOS against pursuing their work in defence of human rights.

Front Line Defenders urges the authorities in Colombia to:

1. Carry out an immediate, thorough and impartial investigation into the death threats against Iván Madero Vergel, with a view to publishing the results and bringing those responsible to justice in accordance with international standards;

2. Take all necessary measures to guarantee the physical and psychological integrity and security of Iván Madero Vergel and his family members, including through the full application of precautionary measures already granted by the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights and the National Protection Unit of Colombia, in consultation with the human rights defender;

3. Guarantee in all circumstances that all human rights defenders in Colombia are able to carry out their legitimate human rights activities without fear of reprisals and free of all restrictions.

On 9 January 2014, in the city of Barrancabermeja, human rights defender Mr Iván Madero Vergel received a death threat over the telephone, also warning him that his family's whereabouts were known.

On the same day, Ms Lilia Peña Silva received a death threat against her and the other members of the Asociación Regional de Víctimas de Crímenes de Estado del Magdalena Medio – ASORVIMM (Regional Association of Victims of the State of Magdalena Medio) as well as against human rights defender Mr Melkin Castrillón.

Iván Madero Vergel is president of the Corporación Regional por la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos – CREDHOS (Regional Corporation for Defending Human Rights). Lilia Peňa Silva is a member of ASORVIMM, and Melkin Castrillón is a member of the Asociación Campesina del Valle del Río Cimitarra – ACVC (Campesino Association of the Valle del Río Cimitarra). The organisations work in the oil-rich city of Barrancabermeja and the surrounding region of Magdalena Medio, responding to the needs of the victims of the armed conflict in Colombia. They denounce violations of human rights and international humanitarian law committed by paramilitaries and state security forces, particularly cases of extra-judicial executions, as well as violations against and intimidation of the campesino community in Valle del Río Cimitarra.

On 9 January 2014, the secretary of CREDHOS received a threatening telephone call for Iván Madero Vergel, informing him that he had 48 hours to leave and that the whereabouts of his family had been identified. At the offices of ASORVIMM, a manilla envelope containing a pamphlet and a bullet was found. The pamphlet said, “Death to the guerrillas disguised as victims Asorvin Melqun Lilia (sic)”. This type of threat is frequent in Colombia; human rights defenders, campesino leaders, trade unionists and members of civil society organisations are often stigmatised as members of armed insurgency groups.

These incidents are the latest in a series of events. Front Line Defenders previously issued an urgent appeal on 27 November 2013 with regard to a break-in at the offices of CREDHOS, as well as intimidation of its members outside the office. Furthermore, during February and March of 2013 Melkin Castrillón and Lilia Peña Silva were subjected to death threats via SMS, including one threat of having a grenade thrown into their house.