Juan David Díaz Chamorro informed of plan to kill him and his wife Malena Martínez
On 3 June 2013, at 8:48pm, an email was sent to Colonel Julián González, Chief of Police for Sucre, Colombia, informing him of a plan to kill human rights defender Mr Juan David Díaz Chamorro, his wife Ms Malena Martínez, and one other person closely linked to the family. Several other human rights defenders were copied in the email.
Malena Mariet Martínez Montoya is member of the Sucre branch of the Movimiento Nacional de Víctimas de Crímenes de Estado – MOVICE (National Movement of Victims of State Crimes). MOVICE is an organizational process in which more than 200 organizations of victims of forced disappearance, extrajudicial executions, selective and displaced murders, as well as accompanying organizations and human rights defenders converge. It has 12 years of existence and has a territorial presence in 15 departments of the country, including Sucre department. Malena Martinez has been accompanying La Guaripa case in Sucre since January 2018, when three brothers were killed as a result of a land conflict.
On 3 June 2013, at 8:48pm, an email was sent to Colonel Julián González, Chief of Police for Sucre, Colombia, informing him of a plan to kill human rights defender Mr Juan David Díaz Chamorro, his wife Ms Malena Martínez, and one other person closely linked to the family. Several other human rights defenders were copied in the email.
Juan David Díaz Chamorro is the leader of the Sucre branch of the Movimiento Nacional de Víctimas de Crímenes de Estado – MOVICE (National Movement of Victims of State Crimes) and the son of Eudaldo Díaz, assassinated Mayor of El Roble, Sucre.
The email received on 3 June 2013 states that the assassins have been in Sincelejo, the capital of Sucre, since 1 June 2013, and that they are under the command of the urabeños, one of the largest paramilitary groups in Colombia. It goes on to say that part of the payment has already been made and that those ordering the assassinations are in jail in Barranquilla, amongst them Edelmiro Anaya, who is serving a prison sentence for masterminding the murder of Eudaldo Díaz in 2003.
This latest threat is part of a pattern of continued threats and intimidation aimed at members of MOVICE Sucre and its other branches throughout the country. The organisation has managed to collect evidence of more than 130 serious threats against its members since its formation in 2006, including murders, attempted murders, break-ins, direct threats, threats to family members, as well as judicial harassment and prosecutions, arrests and various forms of intimidation.
In September 2012 Front Line Defenders and MOVICE launched a six-episode Public Service Announcement (PSA) radio campaign focusing on six Colombian human rights defenders and including the case of Juan David Díaz Chamorro.
