Political activists in Colombia are living in fear of their lives as paramilitary gangs murder with impunity. Between 2002 and 2006, a staggering 168 human rights defenders or their family members – including five children - were murdered in what is still a hugely unstable and often dangerous society.

The Irish human rights campaigner Mary Lawlor witnessed this violent struggle first-hand, during a visit to the region earlier this month. Lawlor is the director of Frontline, an organisation set-up to provide financial assistance for activists facing threats because of their work. She spent a week travelling around the Latin American country, meeting with human rights defenders and social activists. From this first-hand experience, Lawlor says it is clear that human rights defenders in Colombia badly need international support.
“Their mood is not one of optimism, it’s one of survival, and also of unbelievable determination to carry on with their work – but that isn’t always possible,” she says. “They’re looking to the EU and the US to align themselves with the victims, not the victimisers. It’s clear that they all feel very afraid. I’ll give you an example of a woman lawyer who had received death threats, the most recent saying that she would be killed on the 24th of December. Many of the lawyers are unable to work because of the stress, the threatening phone calls. This woman was shaking, she couldn’t even sit still she was in such a state. We’ve evacuated her out of the country.”
Colombia’s president Alvaro Uribe toured Europe and North America in 2005 looking for support for his “Justice and Peace Law”, which was presented as a way to secure the demobilisation of the paramilitaries in exchange for an amnesty. Uribe’s plan was heavily criticised at the time, but it received support from western governments, including our own.
Lawlor argues that the demobilisation promised by Uribe has not materialised on the ground. The majority of threats to human rights activists come from right-wing paramilitaries, whose main source of income is the drugs trade. “The paramilitaries are technically supposed to be demobilised but the structures are still in place and they’re still operating,” she reports. “Many of those that have been put in prison are running operations from inside jail.”
Lawlor also charges the Colombian president with endangering the lives of social activists. “President Uribe is coming out with statements inferring that human rights defenders are either left-wing guerrillas or guerrilla supporters,” Lawlor says. “This makes it impossible for them to feel safe when they’re being stigmatised by the president. Once they’ve been defamed like that they’re much more vulnerable. By equating human rights defenders with guerrilla activity he’s making them targets. It makes it much easier for the paramilitaries to come after them.”
Labour foreign affairs spokesman Michael D Higgins is critical of the EU’s support for Uribe, and believes the Irish government should take a more independent line. “There’s no doubt at all that the Uribe connection is mediated through Germany, Britain and France,” he argues. “You probably have a better chance of getting something done through the European Union if you link up with countries that have a record of supporting human rights in the region, Sweden for example.”
That something needsd to be done is not in doubt, according to Lawlor. Over the past year, the Uribe administration has been dogged by allegations of collaboration between its supporters and paramilitary leaders. Eleven members of Congress have been charged with paramilitary links and are facing trial, including the president’s cousin and his former private secretary. Uribe’s foreign minister resigned earlier this year after her brother was implicated in the scandal, while the former chief of Colombia’s secret service, Jorge Noguera, is in custody awaiting trial for passing on names of trade union members to the paramilitaries. Noguera was Uribe’s campaign manager in the Magdalena province.
“The Colombian government are very good at PR and playing the game with the US and the EU, so that the world believes Colombia is a democratic state combating terrorism and drug dealing,” says Lawlor. “But the reality is that sections of the State have close relationships with paramilitaries. As time goes by, I think you’ll see many more revelations.”