ASFADDES member at a demonstration in Medellín. [Photo: Jorge Mata/Surimages-IPA]
Article published in the special Newsletter '15 years of PBI', October 2009
Matteo Burato, volunteer from Italy (2009)
At the end of the 90s attacks against human rights organisations in the capital of Antioquia increases.
At the end of the 1990s violent acts against human rights defenders gave rise to concerns about an increase in their persecution. The explosion of a bomb in the entrance of the Association of Family Members of the Detained and Disappeared (ASFADDES)1 offices and other explosions throughout the city2, the kidnapping of four researchers from the Popular Training Institute (IPC) and the assassinations of human rights defenders including Jesús María Valle Jaramillo3 and Hernán Henao Delgado4 revealed the implementation of a paramilitary strategy aimed at eliminating all forms of resistance in the region.
In fact, throughout this decade, Medellin experienced a real urban war so violent that the entire social movement was hit extremely hard, which in turn affected the social fabric and all political initiatives in the city.
It was precisely in this violent environment that some NGOs began to feel the need to create a feeling of solidarity, not only at a local or regional level, but also internationally. PBI arrived in Medellin in October 1999 with the aim of accompanying ASFADDES, IPC and the Political Prisoners Solidarity Committee (FCSPP). The IPC recalls that the members of PBI at that time carried out considerable advocacy work with the local population and that those efforts contributed to maintaining the security of the individuals and the organisations they accompanied.
Outside of the city limits, the work of PBI was primarily focused on Eastern Antioquia where the Corporation Judicial Freedom (CJL) was carrying out prevention and assistance work with communities that had been displaced as a result of the armed conflict. Elkin Ramirez, lawyer and co-founder of CJL, highlights the fact that, accompanied by PBI, the Corporation was able to access areas that were difficult to reach because of the numerous checkpoints that represented a high security risk. From 2001, when the situation in the neighbourhoods was getting worse, accompaniment was opened up to the comunas, or districts, in Medellin where the Seeds of Liberty Human Rights Collective (Colectivo de Derechos Humanos Semillas de Libertad-CODEHSEL)5 was carrying out training programmes with grassroots organisations.
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1 On 24 June 1997, a bomb exploded outside the ASFADDES offices in Medellin.
2 This is a reference to a bomb that exploded in the Prado neighbourhood on 20 August 1999 aimed at the IPC and at least two other devices were placed in Medellin the same day with the aim of affecting the Workers Cooperative of various companies (ASEO).
3 The lawyer from Antioquia, President of the Antioquia Human Rights Committee was assassinated on 27 February 1998 in his office after threats received after he had reported links between members of the military and the massacres in Ituango (Antioquia) at the end of the previous year.
4 On 4 May 1990 Hernan Delgado, Director of the Institute of Regional Studies – Antioquia University was assassinated by persons unknown that broke into his office in Medellin.
5 Platform of human rights organisations that work both in the town of Medellin and the Antioquia department.
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Sharing happiness and tears
Martha Soto, Association of Family Members of the Detained and Disappeared (ASFADDES)
About ten years ago, we had great hopes about having a team in Medellin. It was a difficult year and the assassination of Julio Gonzáles y Chucho Puerta when we were just starting out had a major impact on us and showed us how defenceless we were.
That is how we started work and the first volunteers, Pilar and Mikel arrived, a couple of Spaniards who were spending their first Christmas in the PBI house and who accompanied, primarily, the Association family members. Then the team expanded with the arrival of Fidel, Teresa, Jacobo, Helena, Mariana, Mirjan and Roberto, a team that not only accompanied us in our work, but also at parties and shared in our joy; they were also there for us at a very difficult time for ASFADDES and CODEHSEL, the forced disappearance of Ángel and Claudia. They were at our side when we reported the case and as we carried out an incessant search, a search that still continues and forms part of our lives.
After those difficult months, when the regional office in Medellin had to close, the Medellin team somehow managed to keep the family members together with the excuse that it was Christmas. In February 2001, when we made the decision to go back to work, PBI accompanied us constantly, in the office and in all our other work until we built the office back up to what it had been.
With total conviction that the accompaniment of PBI in our city has been fundamental for our work, we give our most sincere gratitude to each and every one of the volunteers who have been part of the team and who have made our accompaniment of victims possib