CALL FOR ACTION: Colombia: Women Human Rights Defenders Threatened

Four women human rights defenders from northern Colombia have been threatened in an email sent to one of them, Jackeline Rojas Castañeda. Her two bodyguards were also threatened.

On 13 February Jackeline Rojas Castañeda received a threat by email. She is a member of the Popular Women's Organization (Organización Femenina Popular, OFP), a member of Space of Human Rights Workers in Barrancabermeja (Espacio de Trabajadores y Trabajadoras de Derechos Humanos, ETTDH) and volunteers with the Political Prisoners Solidarity Committee (Comité de Solidaridad con los Presos Políticos, CSPP). The threat also names Ana Teresa Rueda Lozada and Dolores Flores who work in the ETTDH and CSPP secretary general Carolina Rubio Sguerra.

The threat said they knew about Jackeline Rojas's recent visits to Bolívar and César Departments in the course of her human rights work, and warned her, making reference to a human rights prize she recently received: “Do not believe you are wonder woman, that prize is no bullet-proof vest” (no crea que es la mujer maravilla el premiesito no es chaleco antibalas). The email continued, “Stop opening your big mouths and getting involved with what is none of your business, no one listens anymore to your stupid complaints” (dejen de estar abriendo la bocota y metiendose en lo que no les importa, los escandalos pendejos que hacen ya nadie se los oye). All four women have been denouncing human rights violations in the region. The email threatened that the two men the government has assigned to protect Jackeline Rojas would be killed if they did their job.

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