Tactics and tools for the protection
of Human Rights Defenders

September 2011

Report on the revictimisation of MOVICE during the first year of the Juán Manuel Santos administration

(7 August 2010 - 6 August 2011)

Since the beginning of the Juan Manuel Santos administration, there has been a notable change in the presidential rhetoric about human rights defenders and victims, especially compared to the systematic stigmatization and baseless accusations that characterized the Uribe administration.

This change in tone might lead us to hope for attacks on victims and human rights defenders to come to an end, or at least decline. Unfortunately, several sources have demonstrated that the situation has actually deteriorated during the Santos administration, compared to the last year of the Uribe administration.

The “We Are Defenders” program’s recent report supports this assertion, revealing that in the first half of 2011, 29 human rights defenders and social leaders were murdered in Colombia, while three more were forcibly disappeared.

This situation of violence against human rights defenders warranted a statement by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on March 8, 2011. The Commission expressed its concern over threats by the Águilas Negras paramilitary group against human rights defenders. Some of the threatened organizations and individuals, including MOVICE, have been granted Inter-American Commission Precautionary Measures.

Attacks and threats continue to be carried out by paramilitary groups, confirming that paramilitary strategies remain in force. Paramilitary structures have managed to maintain territorial control thanks to the ongoing collusion of regional and national military and police commanders, political groups, and business interests.