Article by PBI-Canada

On August 20, the Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project posted: “We express our great concern regarding the denunciation of a plan to attack members of the human rights organization CREDHOS and we request that the necessary actions be taken to guarantee the safety of its members.”

This follows this tweet from CREDHOS that noted: “CREDHOS states that information provided by a highly reliable source allowed us to learn about a criminal plan orchestrated by paramilitary structures associated with a businessman from [Barrancabermeja].”

The fuller statement from CREHDOS explains:

“Last Thursday, August 6, 2020, at approximately 11:00 am, an alleged businessman from Barrancabermeja held a meeting with three alleged members of an illegal armed group, on a farm near the site called ‘La Trituradora’, located in the Road that leads to the municipality of Sabana de Torres – Santander.”

“This businessman, along with aliases ‘El tio’, aliases ‘Vitamina’ and aliases ‘El Indio’, closed a criminal action deal directed against the CREDHOS members.”

“In the aforementioned meeting, the businessman stated verbatim to the three criminals ‘… we must squeeze those from CREDHOS’.”

“According to the information obtained, these people are part of paramilitary structures dedicated to Micro and Drug Trafficking in the city of Barrancabermeja and, in their power they have photographs of several members of CREDHOS against whom their criminal action would be directed.”

Peace Brigades International-USA joins with PBI-Colombia in expressing our concern about this security situation and requests that the necessary actions be taken to guarantee the safety of CREDHOS members.

We also remember the important message brought by CREDHOS president Ivan Madero Vergel during his visit to Canada this past November 2019.

PBI-Colombia has accompanied CREDHOS since 1994.

The full statement by CREDHOS about this situation can be read here in Spanish.