Colombian Human Rights Lawyers Receive Death Threats

On Monday, unknown individuals threatened Yessika Hoyos, the director of Jose Alvear Restrepo Lawyers (CAJAR), one of Colombia's most recognized human rights organizations.

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"Yesterday I received a text message where they threatened me again," Hoyos said through a video posted on social networks.

In the message, she is accused of continuing to help guerrillas and "sticking her nose where she is not wanted." The anonymous menaces warn Hoyos that she could end up dead like the people she defends.

These threats refer to the Mondoñedo massacre that occurred in 1996, when members of the police murdered four students whom they accused of being guerrillas. At that time, CAJAR assumed the legal representation of the victims of this case of State terrorism.

"This is the third consecutive threat I have received. It is related to other attacks and harassment that CAJAR lawyers continue to experience," she pointed out.

In 2021 and 2022, Yessika Hoyos and Alfonso Mora, father of one of the victims of the Mondoñedo massacre, also received similar threats.

"We demand that the Attorney General's Office diligently investigate these new events against the victims of the massacre and their representatives, as well as over 100 attacks against members of CAJAR that remain unpunished," Hoyos said.

The CAJAR director asked the Colombian State to urgently adopt "a comprehensive public policy that provides guarantees for social leaders and human rights defenders."

The text reads, "Those responsible for the Mondoñedo Massacre show little desire for truth and reparation towards the victims."

"On Sept. 6, 1996, agents from the Criminal Investigation Directorate (DIJIN) kidnapped four college students who were members of the leftist organization the Patriotic Union (UP)," Outsiders.Esp recalled.

They were taken to a ranch in the region of Cundinamarca, where they were tortured before being murdered. Their bodies were incinerated and thrown into the Mondoñedo landfill.

"That same day, other officers murdered two UP militants in broad daylight and on the street in Bogota. The six victims had been identified by the police as urban guerrillas and were executed in revenge for an attack on the Kennedy neighborhood police station," it added.