04537
December 8, 2004

Church-related worker accused of FARC ties

Colombian church demands fair investigation

by Alexa Smith

 
John Newers, Accompanier

 Click here for audio link from John Newers

      Jose Guillermo Larios Gomez founded CREDHOS, a non-governmental organization based in Barrancabermeja that works for human rights. He was detained last Monday in Bogota by armed government agents.

      According to press reports in Colombia, Larios is accused of taking orders from a FARC commander to extort and kidnap local businessmen.

      Kidnapping and extortion are lucrative ways that Colombia’s illegal armed groups finance their operations. Colombia is unquestionably the kidnapping capital of the hemisphere.

      CREDHOS immediately issued a statement objecting to the massive publicity surrounding Larios’ detention, charging that it jeopardizes his right to a fair trial in Colombia’s dangerously polarized political climate. The statement also claims that links between human rights workers and armed groups are a political ploy used to stigmatize organizations so that they are rendered ineffective.

      Larios, 37, is the second church-related human rights worker to be detained while authorities investigate accusations that have been leveled against them, reportedly by government informants.

      Mauricio Avilez, 24, was the first man detained. He was jailed for 130 days while agents investigated similar – but much less specific – accusations, before local prosecutors decided there was not enough evidence to continue imprisoning him. Officials have a few more days to determine whether to file criminal charges against him or to drop the case.

      Avilez directed CEDHERNOS, assisting displaced people to file for government assistance and document the human rights violations that forced them off their land.

      Avilez is in hiding, fearful of paramilitary groups who exact their own deadly brand of justice, without benefit of trial, against individuals accused of links to guerrilla forces.

      When Avilez was taken into custody last spring Larios disappeared – living in hiding until he was taken into custody last week.

     Neither Avilez nor Larios are Presbyterian.

         Like Avilez, Larios is accused of extortion, homicide and rebellion. He has been acused of being linked to explosions at three Barranquilla department stores last December that killed one 18-year-old woman and injured more than 70 other people. The chain – called SAO y Vivero – is owned by a prominent Colombian politician.

Kelly Wesselink, Accompanier

click here for audio link from Kely Wesselink

       But unlike Avilez, the information printed by the Colombian press on the Larios case alleges that he coordinated kidnappings and extortions by FARC militia in the region and that his alias was “El Presbitero.”

      Barranquilla is where the synod office is located; its campus is just blocks from one of the damaged stores.

      “Guillermo worked with us here. He [is] a person who worked for human rights and who supported the displaced, and as such worked with both Mauricio and us,” said the Rev. Milton Mejia, the executive secretary of the PCC, who spoke with the Presbyterian News Service Tuesday afternoon by telephone. “Up until now, investigations have shown the accusations against Mauricio to not be true. Guillermo has a lawyer and we hope he will prove his innocence.

      “The government, if it finds proof, must show it; but we hope they find the truth and the truth will triumph.”

      Mejia said that the allegations against Larios do not muddle the Avilez case. “Mauricio’s case is very clear …

      “We proved it was all lies.”

      Mejia has contended that the church has always worked within legal means to address human rights violations and that officials are attempting to link the church to the guerrillas in order to wreck its human rights ministry.

      Larios is a 15-year veteran of human rights work. He fled the volatile Colombian city of Barrancabermeja three times in the early 1990s to elude death threats from paramilitaries operating in the region. He has volunteered on projects with CEDHERNOS and did some contract work with the ecumenical organization Red Ecumenica, whose funds the PCC manages.

      The Presbyterian News Service interviewed Larios last January in Barranquilla. Both the door and the window of the tiny room of the human rights office on the PCC campus are bullet-proof.

      In early 2004 Larios appraised human rights work in Barranquilla as increasingly risky since the Uribe government began curbing civil liberties as a means of cracking down on Colombia’s illegal armed groups. This was why, he said, quietly educating people about their rights and about how to organize was the best strategy at the time.

      Larios’ hope was to develop a network of trained human rights workers in the region.

      His words about the fate of human rights workers then seem to foreshadow his future: “Nowadays, working in human rights is a dangerous job … because you are risking your life. One of the problems is that one of the paramilitary groups could kill you, disappear you, whatever.

      “But the thing that is most common is that [the authorities] will charge you, put you in prison. Use informants … [to accuse you] of rebellion and terrorism.” He added that the label of terrorist has been increasingly used in Colombia since U.S. President George Bush launched his war on terror. “Before it was narco-trafficking, rebellion.

      “Now [the language] is narco-terrorism.”

      Larios said that more than 100 human rights workers have fled Colombia. Others have been marked by paramilitaries and killed.

      Rick Ufford-Chase, the moderator of the 216^th General Assembly, has spoken with Mejia since the news of Larios’ detention broke. “I’m in absolute agreement with him that there is a need for a full, fair investigation,” he said, “with no presumption of guilt on anyone’s part.”

      Ufford-Chase was instrumental in pushing the PC(USA) to send U.S. Presbyterians south to live with the Colombian church to help deter harassment and to report what is happening there to the international church and major human rights organizations.

      The PCC has been requesting accompaniment throughout the last year; two accompaniers arrived in Colombia two weeks ago: John Ewers, 69, of Dayton, OH, and Kelly Wesselink, 23, of Tucson, AZ. They are both working in Barranquilla.