Video still: CREDHOS president Ivan Madero, January 4, 2025
Infobae reports: “On January 1, the Regional Corporation for the Defense of Human Rights (CREDHOS) received a text message with a threatening pamphlet that pointed to social leaders and human rights defenders as new military targets. The threat was not only directed at the organization, but also at four members of the human rights collective in [the city of] Barrancabermeja, Santander.”
The article continues that CREDHOS president Ivan Madero has named Dylan Mauricio Benjumea, alias Gamba or Katín, as the person responsible from the Clan del Golfo paramilitary, formerly known as the AGC and now seeking to be recognized as the Gaitanista Army of Colombia (EGC).
Infobae further reports: “The president of CREDHOS called on government entities to intensify offensive measures against these illegal armed groups, which intimidate, subjugate and kill people committed to building a better society in the most marginalized territories of the country.”
In this statement, CREDHOS notes: “The threats occur in the midst of the increase in victimizing acts against the civilian population committed by various armed groups, as well as territorial control in the paramilitary project of the AGC in the Middle Magdalena.”
El Espectador adds: “Madero urged national and government authorities to take measures to protect the civilian population, but also human rights defenders. Madero was emphatic in asking that the Ministry of the Interior ‘quickly and effectively implement’ the public policy of dismantling paramilitary groups.”
That article also explains: “The Gulf Clan is the most powerful illegal organization in the country. Emerging from paramilitary demobilizations in the 2000s, the Clan has consolidated significant territorial control in several regions, especially in Urabá in Antioquia and Choco, the Caribbean and areas of the Pacific. The group, today commanded by Jobanis de Jesús Ávila Villadiego, has diverse criminal activities, ranging from drug trafficking to illegal mining, extortion and contract killings.”
And on January 13, BLU Radio Santander reported: “CREDHOS denounced a serious humanitarian situation in the region of Guamocó, in southern Bolívar, after the presence of an armed group allegedly from the Clan del Golfo, known as the Roberto Vargas Gutiérrez bloc. According to the statement issued by the NGO, these events have generated forced displacements and serious human rights violations.”
Enlace Television further explains: “CREDHOS reported that on January 5, approximately 600 armed men of the AGC broke into the village of Altos de las Brisas, where they looted homes and forcibly displaced families. In addition, direct threats against the mining population were reported in the villages of Minguillo and Los Tomates. The situation worsened on January 7, when the AGC intensified its presence in the Las Brujas sector, imposing restrictions on mobility and sowing fear among the communities.”
The work of CREDHOS
El Espectador has highlighted: “Since 1987, CREDHOS has been making visible the barbarities committed against the population, paramilitaries and the former FARC guerrillas – sometimes in collusion with the security forces. …CREDHOS has continued to carry out investigations in which oil multinationals, mayors’ offices, high-ranking members of the security forces and businessmen have been implicated in the commission of atrocious crimes during the armed conflict. This has again brought them harassment and stigmatization.”
PBI-Colombia has accompanied CREDHOS since 1994.
Published by Brent Patterson on