Urgent Action The Asociación Sembrando Semillas de Paz (Sembrandopaz) emits URGENT ACTION for the physical and judicial security, and the right to a good name and due process for Ricardo Esquivia Ballestas, director of this organization, as well as other leaders of the community process of the High Mountain Zone of El Carmen de Bolívar, Colombia. Recommended Actions - Maintain Ricardo Esquivia, the members of the Sembrandopaz team, and the leaders of the High Mountain Zone of El Carmen de Bolívar in prayer. - Spread broadly this Urgent Action. - Solicit the Colombian State (see names, contact information and sample letter below) to speak out on this issue and take all the necessary measures to assure the respect of life, physical integrity, right to due process, and good name of Ricardo Esquivia, the members of the Sembrandopaz team, and the community leaders of the High Mountain Zone of El Carmen de Bolívar. - Solicit the Colombian State to speak out on this issue and support the citizen participation and full implementation of the Victims and Land Restitutions Law, and to reject all actions that go against this process. - To the international community, communicate with their governmental representatives and to the Colombian Embassy in their country to express their concern and solicit their backing to this urgent action. - Ask the Colombian State to guarentee the rights of a due process and the physical integrity of Jorge Montes in his place of reclusion, so that he is not subjected to torture or mistreatment. Acts and Antecedents Trust-worthy sources have confirmed an imminent threat by Colombian authorities against the liberty of Ricardo Esquivia Ballestas and members of the coordinating committee of the Movement of the High Mountain Zone in El Carmen de Bolívar, and against the legitimacy of the Asociación Sembrando Semillas de Paz (Sembrandopaz). Sembrandopaz was founded under the leadership of Ricardo Esquivia Ballestas in 2005 with the support and sponsorship of the Mennonite Church of Colombia with the goal of accompanying community processes of justice and peace building in the Montes de María and Caribbean region of Colombia. Sembrandopaz is an active expression of the values of nonviolence, solidarity and love of neighbor with which the global Mennonite church has been committed to since it’s beginning in the 16th century. Since his early formation in the Mennonite Church, Ricardo Esquivia has accompanied processes of peace building, human dignity and reconciliation, alongside churches and local communities in the region of Montes de María for approximately 40 years. One year ago, Sembrandopaz began accompaniment to the movement of the High Mountain Zone of El Carmen de Bolivar, whose communities organized for their rights to integral, transformative reparations, a dignified return to their land, guarantees of no repetition, and state support for the solution to the death of avocado crops in more than 40 rural communities in the Montes de María region. The community movement of the High Mountain Zone did a Peace March from April 5 to 8 of 2013 to demand a dialogue with local, state and national government, which began in San Jacinto on the 7th of April and continues to the present day. The movement has contributed to promote reconciliation between before-divided and fractioned communities of the High Mountain Zone, and to encourage citizen participation in dialogue. On September 3 of the current year, leaflets appeared in the High Mountain Zone throughout the communities of Macayepo and Lazaro, threatening various leaders of the movement, including the Coordinator of the movement, Jorge Luis Montes Hernández. This document accuses the leaders of robbery, extortion, and affiliation with the FARC-EP and is signed by a self-defense paramilitary group, “Los Urabeños” and BACRIM. On September 9, the Prosecutor of El Carmen de Bolívar called the community leader, Jorge Montes, to present himself in their office and there proceeded to follow through on an order to arrest him. In the pre-trial hearing, on September 11, they accused Mr. Jorge Montes of the crimes of belonging to the 35th Front of the FARC-EP, criminal conspiracy, homicide, forced displacement, extortion, and others. According to trust-worthy sources, the threats against Ricardo are similar to actions and processes begun against him by Colombian authorities in 1989, 1993, and 2004, based on false accusations, which were later suspended due to lack of foundation. Towards the end of the month of June of the current year, after the accompaniment of Sembrandopaz in the Peace March of the High Mountain Zone, two international members of the Sembrandopaz team, with temporary religious visas under the support of the Mennonite Church of Colombia, Anna Vogt of Canada and Lariza Zehr of the United States, were called to the office of External Relations in Colombia to verify the validity of their migratory status, with the possibility of their deportation. This process has still not resolved. Sign onto the Petition to Stop Political Persecution of Ricardo Esquivia and Colombian Human Rights Workers using this link: petitions.moveon.org/sign/stop-political-persecution
Posted on: Sat, 14 Sep 2013 16:53:41 +0000
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