Colombian Human Right Defenders: Weapons won’t make us safer, Political Support Will

“Body guards are not going to protect our lives. What it’s going to protect us is understanding that our work is legal and legitimate… a strong rejection by those holding political power to (threatening) pressures” said yesterday Claudia López, a prestigious Colombian researcher with New Rainbow Corporation, now victim of threats for their work on links between paramilitary and politicians.

New Rainbow Corporation is a Colombia based organization that has done ground-breaking research on links between Colombian politicians and paramilitary death squads. Long before the para-politics scandal broke, New Rainbow issued reports on “atypical” voting results on areas under paramilitary influence –cases in which a single ticket obtained over 70% of the vote candidates that won up to 90% of the votes or that saw their votes several times folded, when compared to previous elections. Their researched demonstrated that “29 Colombian senators had made agreements with or commitments to the paramilitary”. Not surprisingly, New Raibow’s reports have been key evidence for the Supreme Court judges investigating the para-politics that now has 63 member of congress under criminal investigation, most of them part of President Uribe's coallition. Last March New Raibow Corporation started to receive threats, and had their office broken into and their computers stolen, after they issued a new report document paramilitary infiltration in the Antioquia region.

Responding to US grassroots concerns organized, among others, by FOR, 63 members of Congress sent a letter to President Uribe on April 13th requesting him to make a statement “reaffirming [the Colombian government’s] commitment to the protection of human right defenders.