Campaign by MOVICE in favour of the liberation of Agámez.

The regional coordinator for the National Movement of Victims of State Crimes (MOVICE) in the department of Sucre has been accused of having ties with paramilitarism, an illegal activity he had always spoken against and which had caused him to receive death threats on multiple occasions. After the Prosecutor General and the Sucre Superior Court recognised the existence of irregularities in the legal proceedings, the 28th Prosecutor’s Office of the National Anti-Terrorist Unit in Bogotá —to which the case had been re-assigned— decided to summon Carmelo Agámez to trial. He could be convicted and sentenced to prison for three to six years for the crime of conspiracy to commit a crime.

Carmelo Agámez, MOVICE regional coordinator in Sucre, has been in jail since November 2008. He spent his first months in the La Vega Prison in Sincelejo (Sucre) along with some of the paramilitaries he had spoken out against in the past. Presently, he is being held at the prison in Corozal due to pressure from human rights organisations and the international community. The travesty subjected upon Mr. Agámez began when the wife of the former mayor of San Onofre, Jorge Blanco, and the former municipal councilor from Rincón del Mar, Luís Carlos Hocón , accused him of having participated in a meeting in 2002 with the paramilitary chief of the Heroes of the Montes de María Bloc, Rodrigo Mercado Peluffo, aka Cadena, and of having run for municipal councilor in the period from 2003 to 2007 with support from paramilitary structures .

This November, the 28th Prosecutor’s Office of the National Anti-Terrorist Unit in Bogotá decided to summon Carmelo Agámez to trial despite the fact the Sucre Superior Court and the Prosecutor General confirmed the violation of due process. For instance, initially he was not allowed to know the evidence against him and his residence was searched irregularly. Moreover, there is evidence of misconduct by the prosecutor who opened the investigation and the Superior Court has ordered for him to be investigated for the allegedly unfounded accusation against Mr. Agámez .

Carmelo Agámez has always been a victim of paramilitarism

The script to this film could have been written by Kafka or Dante, but Mr. Agámez’s history of accusation, detention and criminal investigation is very real. The prosecutor in Sincelejo (who himself is currently being investigated), Mr. Martínez Mendoza, overturned a request for house arrest made by the defence. According to the prosecutor, Carmelo Agámez could represent a danger to society in San Onofre from his residence, since «he could possibly continue to commit crimes with the AUC criminal enterprise» . In this respect, the prosecutor totally disregarded the fact that in 2006 the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights granted precautionary measures of protection to Carmelo Agámez —in addition to another seventeen members of social organisations—, after their names appeared on an extermination list allegedly drafted by politicians with ties to paramilitary structures . Since then, nine of these persons have been murdered . Throughout the legal proceedings, Mr. Agámez’s political background has been ignored as well as the fact that he has been a victim of the crimes committed by paramilitaries and has politically opposed those who have benefited from paramilitarism . For instance, in April 2009 —while Carmelo Agámez was in jail— a list was distributed by the illegal organisation Former Military Members for Peace (EXMIPAZ), which among other things mentions Mr. Agámez with the purpose of «eradicating this harmful ilk» and granting him 72 hours to leave Sincelejo and San Onofre. This threat declared that «we are waiting for those jailed here» . According to press releases and public statements, several MOVICE members in Sucre recently received threatening telephone calls, harassment and pamphlets, despite the legality of their work.

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1 Luís Carlos Hocón was recently arrested due to his alleged ties with paramilitarism. In October 2008, the paramilitary Marco Tulio Pérez, aka El Oso, provided testimony before a prosecutor from the Justice and Peace Unit, which implicated thirty politicians with the AUC, including Jorge Blanco. These are the same proceedings that involve the defendant Carmelo Agámez. «Entre el poder político y el abuso sexual en San Onofre», Verdadabierta.com, 23 October 2008

2 «Carta abierta al Fiscal General de la Nación sobre el caso de Carmelo Agáme», MOVICE, 24 March 2009. Carmelo Agámez belonged to the Patriotic Union, an opposition party whose members and supporters have been systematically threatened and even murdered by these same paramilitary structures.

3 «Colombian Attorney-General Orders Investigation of Prosecutor for Corruption», Human Rights First, 14 July 2009

4 Response from the Second Specialised Prosecutor in Sincelejo, Rodolfo Martínez Mendoza, concerning the request for house arrest for Carmelo Agámez, 21 May 2009

5 «Comunicado Publico a la opinión nacional e internacional: ofensiva del estado contra organizaciones y miembros del movimiento de victimas», MOVICE, 21 November 2008

6 Ibid. 5

7 «Desde la Injusta Prisión 32 Por la libertad de Carmelo Agámez», statement from Agámez in press release by the Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission, 18 November 2009

8 «Constancia y Censura Ética», Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission, Press Release, 14 April 2009