Yesterday, February 22, at approximately 07:13 PM, the lawyer of the Lawyers Collective José Alvear Restrepo -Cajar- Sebastian Felipe Escobar Uribe, representative of victims before the JEP, received a call on his cell phone lasting 33 seconds, in which a man threatened him and his client Juan David Díaz Chamorro through the following message: “tell Juan David that if he continues to bring in the Sucre politicians we are going to kill him and we will also take you forward as a toad”.
These events are part of the proceedings carried out by the Chamber for the Definition of Legal Situations of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace -JEP-, due to the voluntary submission made by the former governor of Sucre Salvador Arana Sus, on February 12, 2020 in third-party status (agent of the State not a member of the public force) and its acceptance in September of last year by decision of the Constitutional Court.
In October 2009, the Supreme Court of Justice sentenced former Governor Salvador Arana Sus, and his political boss Álvaro García, to 40 years in prison for the murder of Eudaldo Díaz Salgado. On February 2, 2003, Edualdo “Tito” Díaz, the Mayor of El Roble, a municipality in the department of Sucre, expressed in a communal council in Corozal, Sucre, in the presence of former President Álvaro Uribe Vélez, that he was threatened with death. That sentence was carried out on April 10 of the same year, when Arana Sus was the governor of the department.
Last December 2020, the Cajar presented observations on the proposed conditionality regime of Arana Sus presented to the JEP, emphasizing that the clear, concrete and programmed commitment must contribute to the clarification of the truth at a higher level than that established in the ordinary justice system, at the same time that it called for the facts that included the recognition, the identification of the alleged perpetrators or participants, as well as the circumstances of time, manner and place in which they occurred were specified.
On February 11, Juan David Diaz Chamorro, son of the murdered mayor of Roble Eudaldo Díaz Salgado, was accepted as a victim by the Legal Definitions Chamber of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, in response to his request in search of truth and justice “I will not allow Salvador Arana Sus to hide the truth about his responsibility in the death of my father, his criminal alliance with other Sucre politicians, ranchers, merchants, businessmen and figureheads”, Juan David declared when he heard the news.
Minutes before the threat occurred, the Chamber had notified the victims’ representatives that Arana Sus had been summoned to a hearing to contribute to the truth to be held on March 11 and 12, as well as its decision to request the appearing party that will adjust its voluntary contribution plan in response to the request for the representation of victims.
We denounce this serious threat, which is added to other threats, harassment and judicial setup that the family of Mayor Díaz Salgado has suffered, as well as the growing climate of hostility against the work carried out by the Cajar before the Special Jurisdiction for Peace on behalf of the victims.
There is no doubt that the progress of transitional justice in matters of truth has those involved in serious human rights violations in suspense. These advances, which are a very important step for society, are also posing risks for the victims and their representatives.
We ask the National Government to strongly condemn the threats and accusations against human rights defenders, which increase their risk in a context of construction of historical truth such as the one the country is going through. Likewise, through the UNP, strengthen physical protection measures in favor of Juan David Díaz and lawyer Sebastián Escobar Uribe.
We demand a prompt and effective investigation from the Office of the Attorney General of the Nation into the origin of these threats against the lawyer Sebastián Escobar Uribe and the victim Juan David Díaz Chamorro.
To the Special Jurisdiction for Peace -JEP-, which takes into account this serious security incident when assessing the conditionality regime of the appearing Salvador Arana Sus, while we request to follow up on the protection measures in favor of the victim and his lawyer.
We announce that this new episode of attacks against the family of Tito Eudaldo Díaz and his lawyers will be brought to the attention of the Inter-American Human Rights System, which ordered precautionary measures in favor of Juan David Díaz and del Cajar. We recall that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights is aware of the case of the murder of the mayor of El Roble, and that the Inter-American Court of Human Rights is currently hearing the case of the historical and constant illegal persecution of El Cajar from the highest levels of the State.
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