Disappeared: ALBA NELLY MURILLO!
Take Action to Help Find a Woman Who Spoke Out Against
Military and Paramilitary Abuse
February, 2009The Campaign
for Labor Rights received a report about the
disappearance of Alba Nelly Murillo. Murillo is a 34
year old mother of five from the village of La Esmeralda
in the municipality of El Castillo, Department of Meta.
She is President of the local Community Action Council.
In May, 2008, soldiers from the Colombian Army's 21
Vargas Battalion had come to the village asking for her
whereabouts, complaining that she had spoken out
publicly against military and paramilitary abuses to the
population. On Sunday, February 15, she was last seen
taking a path that would lead her past a military
encampment. She has not been heard from since.
We are asking people to call the
Colombian Embassy and to demand that they investigate
the disappearance of Alba Nelly Murillo. We are also
asking that you request that they call you back to
update you on the results of their investigations. Let
us know here at the Campaign for Labor Rights when you
receive a response or also if, by Friday, the 27th,
there has been no response from the embassy at all.
TO CONTACT THE COLOMBIAN EMBASSY,
CALL:
202-387-8338 or 202 332 7476 or
202 332 7573
Write CLR at: clr@clrlabor.org
Below is the action alert sent out
by the FENSUAGRO farmers, farmworkers, and aquacultural
workers.
Bogotá, Colombia
February, 2009
DISAPPEARED:
THE PRESIDENT OF THE COMMUNITY
ACTION COUNCIL OF THE LA ESMERALDA VILLAGE-ALBA NELLY
MURILLO, IN THE MUNICIPALITY OF EL CASTILLO, DEPARTMENT
OF META.
The National Federation of
Agricultural and Aquacultural Workers Union-FENSUAGRO-CUT
and the Independent Union of Farm Workers in Meta-SINTRAGRIM:
We announce to the national and international public the
DISAPPEARANCE of Alba Nelly Murillo in the municipality
of El Castillo-Meta.
WHAT OCCURRED
On the 16th of February, 2000, in
the afternoon hours, our Federation became aware of the
disappearance of ALBA NELLY MURILLO, the sister of
Comparer Ferney Murillo, spokesperson and educational
leader of SINGATRIM, and the President of the Community
Action Council of the village of La Esmeralda. Alba
Nelly had been living in the central area of El Castillo
for approximately two months. On Sunday, February 15th,
very early at 5:00am, she left her house in her car and
arrived at the community of Miravalles at 8:00am. There
she encountered various persons, among them her brother,
Ferney Murillo. He needed her to go to the house of her
other brother NELSON MURILLO, in the village of Caño
Lindo, with the very bad luck that she never arrived.
Because of these circumstances, they have been searching
for her in the community of Miravalles since Monday,
February 16, 2009, when they knew she had disappeared.
On February 16, 2009, the
Federation's Secretary of Human Rights made contact with
the Public Defender of the Department of Meta, with the
United Nations office, and with Meta's Civic Committee
on Human Rights, in order to find ALBA NELLY.
February 17, 2009, the family of
Alba Nelly communicated with FENSUAGRO's Secretary of
Human Rights, and said that according to their own
investigations in the Miravalles community, she had been
seen leaving by way of Caño Lindo. The saw her pass near
the Miravalles Health Center, which was along Caño Lindo.
She had to have passed by the way of the bridge that
crosses the Llamanes River. There ends what they know of
the life of Alba Nelly.
The community tells that passing
the Llamanes river bridge you find the National Army
camped along the shoulders of the road where Alba Nelly
had to pass. However, on Monday, February 16, 2009, in
the afternoon hours, after the disappearance of Alba
Nelly, the National Army was no longer found on that
site, a situation limiting the family's investigations
concerning the life of the President of the Community
Action Council, Alba Nelly.
The persons living further down
the Lllamanes River have been questioned if they saw
Alba Nelly pass, and they have affirmed that they did
not see her come that way on Sunday.
ALBA NELLY MURILLO, 34 years old,
is the mother of five children, two girls and three boys
of 16, 14, 11, 7, and 5 years respectively, all minors
of age.
ANTECEDENTS:
During the days of the 21st and
22nd of May, 2008, there was a Humanitarian Mission to
the villages of Campo Alegre and La Esmeralda so the
commission could verify that the Battalion 21 Vargas of
the National Army, that controls this territory by means
of a mobile commission with permanent patrols, had
carried out raids of the houses of campesinos, causing
terror and anxiety. We have included parts of the
Humanitarian Mission's report:
June 21, 2008, in the village of
Caño Lindo, Inspection of Miravalles (El Castillo,
Meta). A family of campesinos was obliged to displace
itself because of the pressure and threats of soldiers
of the National Army, troops registered to the Battalion
21 Vargas. They were intimidated and accused of being
subversives and guerrilla collaborators. They had to
leave running, forsaking all they had built. They were
obliged to remove themselves to Bogotá. According to the
report of Ms. Graciela Sun: "Together with her husband
and her two children, minors of age, they left running
for Bogotá. They had to sleep in the streets for several
days.
May 7, 2008, in the village of La
Esmeralda ( El Castillo, Meta). National Army troops
under the direction of Mayor Baquero, in an affronting
manner, arrived at campesino houses asking for Alba
Nelly, who held the position of President of the
Community Action Council, of the village of La
Esmeralda. Mayor Baquero affirmed that Alba Nelly had
denounced the Army for mistreatment in the urban center
of El Castillo. "...The military insinuated to the
campesino: you have communication with the guerrilla,
you are going to "carry the note", add this to your
report. This must refer to the days before that the
community of the village had met and had documented
reports about human rights violations on the part of the
National Army and the paramilitaries.
http://www.solidarity-us.org/node/2067