Statement From The Meso-American Women's Human Rights Defenders' Network On The Murder Of Ana Fabricia Córdoba
Women human rights defenders denounce the murder of Colombian defender Ana Fabricia Córdoba Cabrera and hold the Colombian State responsible for negligence
July 1, 2011
Women Human Rights Defenders organized within the Meso-American communication network of women human rights defenders and organizations across the region, denounce with sadness and indignation the murder of Ana Fabricia Córdoba Cabrera on the 7th of June 2011 in Medellin, Colombia. Ana Fabricia was a member of la Ruta Pacífica de las Mujeres since 2001 and was part of group of “adventurous women promoters of rights” of the La Cruz neighbourhood in the Municipality of Medellin, and founder of Latepaz, a community organization that works to improve the quality of life of displaced persons and victims of violence.
On the morning of June 7, 2011, Ana Fabricia took a bus into La Cruz, home to several displaced families. Minutes later, Ana Fabricia was intercepted by several men on a motorcycle who shot and killed her.
Ana Fabricia Córdoba Cabrera came to Medellin in 2001 after the assassination of one of her sons, allegedly by the Bananero de las autodefensas de Urabá in the department of Antioquia; on July 7, 2010, the second of her sons was assassinated in Medellin. Up until recently, she had been working for the restitution of land in the Urabá Antioquia sub-region and in the neighbourhood of La Cruz, where she had also herself been displaced for the second time.
Ana Fabricia had already denounced the risk to her life prior to her death. In April, at the Metropolitan Human Rights Committee in Medellin she declared publicly: "they will kill me and nothing has been done." But not even this was enough to provide her with the protection she required. Ana Fabricia’s case clearly demonstrates the State’s negligence in her death and highlights the ineffectiveness of the program to protect displaced women.
The assassination of Ana Fabricia is not an isolated case: on the contrary, it reflects a systematic situation faced by human rights defenders in Latin America and particularly in Colombia. From the Meso-American Network, we have been denouncing other recurrent attacks and threats that have occurred against the Liga de Mujeres Desplazadas in Colombia and its director, Patricia Guerrero, who is part of our network.
Given these facts, we join la Ruta Pacífica de las Mujeres in demanding:
1. Urgent protection for the family of Ana Fabricia, under conditions to be agreed upon with her family.
2. That the appropriate entities investigate clarify and bring to justice those responsible for these events.
3. Clarification of the leaflets and threats that are circulating against women's organizations, including la Ruta Pacífica and others.
4. That women in situations of displacement, their families and their organizations, be provided with the guarantees necessary for their protection and for the restoration of their rights; and that the act of demanding these not become itself a threat to their lives, as is currently happening.
We present this statement to Colombian State entities, to the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights and Special Rapporteur to the UN on the Situation of the Defenders of Human Rights.
Signed:
ORGANIZATIONS
Agenda Política de Mujeres (Costa Rica), Roxana Arroyo
Alternativas Pacíficas (México), Alejandra Vela Garza
Asociación de Abogados Mayas de Guatemala (Guatemala)
Asociación para los Derechos de la Mujer y el Desarrollo (AWID), Lydia Alpízar
Asociadas por lo Justo (JASS)
Centro de Derechos de Mujeres (México), Gilda Ma. Rivera Sierra
Centro de Derechos Humanos de la Montaña "Tlachinollan" (México)
Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Juan de Larios (México), Blanca Isabel Martínez Bustos
Centro de Estudios y Acción Social Panameña (Panamá)
Centro para los Derechos de la Mujer Nääxwiin (México)
Centro por la Justicia y el Derecho Internacional (CEJIL), Alejandra Nuño
Centro Regional de Derechos Humanos Bartolomé Carrasco Briseño (México), Minerva Martínez Lázaro
Colectiva Feminista para el Desarrollo Local (El Salvador)
Colectivo Feminista Socialista “Rosa Chillante” (México)
Comaletzin (México)
Comité de Defensa Integral de Derechos Humanos Gobixha (México)
Comité de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecids “Hasta Encontrarlos” (México)
Consorcio para el Diálogo Parlamentario y la Equidad Oaxaca (México), Theres Hoechli, Ana María Hernández Cárdenas, Yésica Sanchez Maya
Coordinadora de Organizaciones para el Desarrollo Integral de la Mujer, Luz Aleyda
Enlace Comunicación y Capacitación AC; Ixchel Carrasco, Margarita Guadalupe Martínez Martínez