MADRE Statements

Community Organizer and Activist is Assassinated in Colombia

Posted on: Friday, June 17, 2011

Keywords: Colombia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Indigenous Rights, Women Human Rights Defenders, Peace Building

We learned from WHRD who sent us this press release, that Ana Fabricia Cordoba, a community organizer and member of the Ruta Pacifica de las Mujeres was assassinated in Medellin, Colombia on June 8, 2011.

Dear Friends, we share with you this sad news.

Ruta Pacific de las Mujeres.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
PRESS RELEASE / No. 5 2011

We demand justice

We repudiate the assassination of Ana Fabricia Cordoba, woman, friend and member of the Ruta Pacifica de las Mujeres.

Ana Fabricia had denounced threats against her life, but she had not been afforded protection.

Bogota Colombia. June 8, 2011. It is with profound sorrow that we denounce and repudiate the death of our friend and companion, ANA FABRICIA CORDOBA CABRERA, yesterday in the northeastern town of Medellin.

Ana Fabricia had taken a small bus around 10:30 in the morning, in the neighborhood of La Cruz, where various displaced families live. Minutes later, Ana Fabricia was intercepted on the bus by some men on motorcycles who shot her once resulting in her death.

The State was negligent. Ana Fabricia had made denouncements regarding the risk to her life to the office of the Attorney General, the Ombudsman, the Public Defender and also the National Police; likewise, she denounced her case publicly in the Metropolitan Committee on Human Rights, where she said “they are going to kill me and no one has done anything”. This took place in Medellin in April in the presence of local and national officials, but nothing was sufficient for them to give her the required protection.

Ana Fabricia had been a member of Ruta Pacifica de las Mujeres since 2001 and was part of the group of women called “adventurous promoters of rights” of the Cruz neighborhood in the City of Medellin and founder of Latepaz, a community organization that works for improvement in the quality of life of displaced persons and victims of violence.

Ana Fabricia Cordoba arrived to Medellin as a displaced person in 2001, soon after the assassination of one of her sons, allegedly in charge of the Bloque Bananero de las autodefensas of Uraba, in the Department of Antioquia; on 7 July 2010, the second of her sons was assassinated in Medellin. Recently, she was working for the restitution of lands in Uraba and in the neighborhood of Cruz, from which she had been displaced for a second time.

Facing the indicated facts about the assassination of Ana Fabricia Cordoba Cabrera, Ruta Pacifica de las Mujeres

Denounces:

The negligence of the State in failing to give protection to our companion and other women who are pursued and threatened by the various armed groups.
The lack of investigation about the denounced events and lack of due diligence on the part of the State regarding the denouncements made by Ana Fabricia.

We demand:

Urgent protection for the family of Ana Fabricia.
That the relevant entities investigate, clarify and judge those responsible for these events.
We need the Truth about the threats and pamphlets that are circulating against the women’s organizations, among them Ruta Pacifica and others.
That the necessary guarantees for their protection be provided for the displaced women, their families and their organizations, and the re-establishment of the rights, without their demands being converted into threats against their lives, as is now occurring.

“We women want to live free of fear, war and violence”.?

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