Spike in Death Threats, Attacks and Assassinations in Colombia http://www.lawg.org/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=719

Death threats, attacks and assassinations. Human rights defenders and indigenous, afro-descendant, and IDP leaders in Colombia often face these terrors, but lately there has been a major spike in these actions—and we’re worried. On April 8th, eight miners were assassinated by armed men in the municipality of Suárez, in the department of the Cauca, Colombia.

On April 10th, death threats were issued in the name of “Los Rastrojos–Comandos Urbanos” to more than sixty Colombian human rights organizations, individuals and international organizations, such as CODHES, AFRODES, MINGA, MOVICE, Fundación Nuevo Arco Iris, UN Development Program, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, CCAJAR, the Social Ministry of the Diocese of Tumaco and many Afro-Colombian and IDP leaders. This same group issued a second threat on May 18th naming many of the same organizations and individuals as well as adding new targets.