"There has been a massacre in Colombia," says Esquerra Congresswoman Maria Dantas

Forced disappearances, murders, urban paramilitary, sexual violence, beatings, water cannons aiming straight for bodies, illegal arrests, detainees held incommunicado… Those are some of the human rights violations that a Catalan delegation has substantiated during a visit to Colombia to observe the repression of the protests in the so-called Paro Nacional or national strike. The social unrest began with the announcement of a tax reform bill, with people taking to the streets to denounce the massive inequalities that the country is facing, and which has been met with disproportionate police violence and the militarization of public space.

“We have heard indigenous women tell of rape by countless police officers, we have seen faces without eyes, fractured arms, mothers and fathers broken. There has been a massacre in Colombia,” said Esquerra Congresswoman Maria Dantas, a member of the delegation.

For a week, the Catalan Table for Peace and Human Rights in Colombia – a platform made up of parliamentarians, institutions and social organizations – have met with victims and their relatives, human rights organizations, institutions, mayors and international agencies based in Colombia. According to the Defender la Libertad network, as of 30 June there have been 84 murders of civilians in the country and there have been 1,790 people wounded and injured by the police and unidentified armed civilians, in addition to 84 cases of eye injuries and 114 people suffering gun wounds. A total of 3,274 people have been arrested, many of them arbitrarily, according to the network. Some remain ‘disappeared’ today.

“The most serious cases are those of the black and the ancestral indigenous populations, LGTBIQA+ people, women – with trans women especially vulnerable – the peasantry, youth and trade unionists, all of whom are often victims of structural racism and racist public policies,” emphasizes Ms Dantas.

The Catalan parliamentarians met with indigenous organizations such as the Misak people and the Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca, to learn first hand of the violence meted out by paramilitary groups of armed civilians in joining the protests in Cali.

At a press conference held in Cali, the epicentre of the demonstrations, Maria Dantas called on the United Nations to “demand that the Colombian government end the deployment of the police in the streets of Colombia.” She also warned of the dangers of Article 155 of the Police Code regarding “transfer for protection,” which on paper allows the police to transfer a person when their integrity is at risk. “As a lawyer, I consider it an open door to serious human rights violations, such as enforced disappearances,” she warned.

“If there are no sanctions by the international community, the Colombian government will maintain the same repressive laws and violence against their people,” denounced the congresswoman, who also said that it was essential for the parliaments of the European countries and regions to be brave and approve measures such as denying any agreements with the Colombian administration as long as it continued to kill its people, as well as calling the Colombian government to comply fully with all the points in the Peace Agreement.”

The congresswoman called on the international community to ensure that the next elections are held within a democratic framework, as “there are politicians under threat of death,” that there should be international support for the forthcoming protests called in order to prevent “more massacres”, and that the human rights clauses of all the international treaties between the European Union and Colombia be activated.

Maria Dantas also focused on the Spanish government’s responsibility in the conflict: “The Interministerial Board [on Foreign Trade of Defence and Dual Purpose Material] must stop authorizations for arms exports to Colombia, as Amnesty International has long been asking for and that has been repeatedly demanded by the Esquerra Group in Congress.” “In addition, it is necessary to recognize the right of asylum of Colombian people who apply, since the Colombian nationality is the second in number of asylum applications and the first in the number of denials,” she added.

Finally, Ms Dantas took up the cry of the demonstrators: ¡A parar para avanzar! ¡Viva el Paro Nacional! (Strike to forge onward! Long live the National Strike!)