Imagine a U.S. government agency, in a public document posted to its website, describing CIP as a pro-terrorist organization, even linking us to a particular terrorist group. Imagine that the document presents no evidence to back up this outrageous claim, and no effort is made to investigate or prosecute us – but the charge remains out there, in a widely distributed document bearing official government letterhead.
It sounds preposterous, of course. But not in Colombia.
Pay a visit to this page on the website of the DirecciÃ³n Nacional de Estupefacientes (DNE), the office of the Colombian governmentâ€™s drug czar. (The DNE, by the way, is a recipient of U.S. government assistance.) Scroll down to “Asuntos JurÃdicos Relevantes,” where you’ll see the JosÃ© Alvear Restrepo Lawyer’s Collective â€“ one of the country’s most reputable human rights groups, which in this case had helped to file an injunction against herbicide fumigations â€“ described in an offhand way as “traditional defenders of the FARC.”
CIP knows and has worked alongside many members of the “Colectivo de Abogados” for years. Yes, it is a group that does not avoid controversy (what use is a human-rights group that avoids controversy?) and frequently pursues human-rights abusers in the Colombian government. But we can say unequivocally that its members have no sympathies whatsoever for guerrillas or any other generators of violence in Colombia.
As serious as it would be for a U.S. government agency to characterize domestic activists as terrorist sympathizers, it’s even more dangerous in Colombia, where the mere suspicion of supporting guerrillas is often tantamount to a death sentence. Seeing such suspicions confirmed in an official document is a direct threat to the safety of the group’s members.
We thank colleagues at the Washington Office on Latin America for pointing out this irresponsible and dangerous language. We join them in urgently calling on Colombia’s DNE and its director, retired Col. Luis Alfonso Plazas Vega (who himself has faced past allegations of human-rights abuse), to remove this very offensive phrase from its website.