Human rights defenders, Ms Jenny Torres, Ms Martha Giraldo and Mr Julio Cesar Rosero, received death threats on 2 and 7 June 2011. Jenny Torres and Martha Giraldo are members of the Movimiento de Víctimas de Crímenes de Estado – MOVICE (Movement of Victims of State Crimes) in Valle del Cauca, Colombia, and lawyer Julio Cesar Rosero is providing legal representation to Jenny Torres in the trial against military officers for the 2007 killing of her husband Edinson Yimel Villanueva.

Further Information

On 7 June 2011 Julio Cesar Rosero and the Valle del Cauca section of MOVICE received the following email: “ABOGADO, ESTO ES PARA QUE SE LO TOME EN SERIO, MUY EN SERIO, YA SABEMOS QUE USTED ES UN GUERRILLERO, DE LA UNIVERSIDAD DEL VALLE QUE DEFIENDE SINDICALISTAS Y ESOS VANDOLEROS DE LA UNIVERSIDAD SANTIAGO DE CALI, LO DECLARAMOS OBJETIVO MILITAR SI DENTRO DE LAS PROXIMAS 48 HORAS NO RENUNCIA COMO A DEFENSOR DE LA NEGRA GUERRILLERA JENNY TORRES, NO LO VAMOS A REPETIR, SI LOS CONDENAN USTED SE MUERE CON ESA NEGRA Y TODA SU FAMILIA, AQUI LA UNICA CAUSA ES LA PATRIA Y EL ORDEN, NO LO OLVIDE 48 HORAS. ATT. LOS HEROES DE LA PATRIA” (Attorney, this is so that you take it seriously, very seriously, we know that you are a guerrillero, from the Valley University who defends trade unionists and those bandits of the University of Santiago de Cali, we declare you a military objective if, within the next 48 hours, you do not renounce as defender of that black guerrillera Jenny Torres, we are not going to repeat this, if you condemn them [referring to military officials in legal case] you will die with the black woman and all her family, here the only cause is the motherland and the order, do not forget it 48 hours. From the Heroes of the Motherland). It continued to say that the threat was directed at Julio Cesar Rosero, Martha Giraldo, Jenny Torres and all in the organisation, and stated that if the military officers were found guilty then the lawyer and Jenny Torres would be killed.

Previously, on 2 June 2011, Julio Cesar Rosero and Jenny Torres received a threat via text message to their mobile telephones which read: “Hijo de puta te vas a morir por sapo at los héroes de la patria saludes a negra hp guerrillos” (Son of a bitch you are going to die for being an informer at the hands of the Heroes of the Motherland say hello to the black son of a bitch guerrilleros).

These threats, which arrived prior to the 8 June hearing for the revocation of the detention order against Sargent Gilardo Ruiz, one of the accused in the 2007 murder, have been reported to the authorities. The outcome in this hearing is expected on 10 June 2011.

Front Line believes that the series of death threats and acts of intimidation to which the members of MOVICE have been subjected are directly related to their work in defence of human rights and MOVICE's work on behalf of victims of crimes committed by the state. Front Line sees this as part of an ongoing campaign of defamation, threats, harassment and attacks against MOVICE and is gravely concerned for the safety of MOVICE members.