The Governing Council of the Inter-Parliamentary Union,

Referring to the case of seven members of the Unión Patriótica (Patriotic Union) concerning the murders between 1986 and 1994 of Mr. Pedro Nel Jiménez Obando, Mr. Leonardo Posada Pedraza, Mr. Octavio Vargas Cuéllar, Mr. Pedro Luis Valencia Giraldo, Mr. Bernardo Jaramillo Ossa and Mr. Manuel Cepeda Vargas and the death threats that forced Mr. Hernán Motta Motta into exile in October 1997, and to the resolution it adopted at its 190th session (April 2012),

Taking into account the information provided by the competent authorities to Senator Juan Pablo Letelier, Vice-President of the Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians, during his visit to Colombia on 20 and 21 March 2013,

Recalling the following information:

• None of the murderers of five of the six congressmen or the perpetrators of the death threats against Mr. Motta, who continues to live in exile, have been held to account;
  

• The Inter-American Court of Human Rights, in its binding ruling of 26 May 2010 in the case of Mr. Cepeda, concluded that the Colombian State bore responsibility for his murder and ordered it to conduct an effective investigation so as to establish the identity of the instigators and the full scale of collaboration between State agents and paramilitary forces in carrying out the crime; it also ordered the State to make reparation, including through the public acknowledgement of responsibility and a public apology; on 9 August 2011, the authorities organized an event for this purpose on the premises of the National Congress; the event focused exclusively on Senator Cepeda’s murder and its ramifications and was attended by high-ranking State officials and parliamentarians from across the political spectrum;
• A general petition submitted to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in 1997 regarding the persecution of the Patriotic Union and offences committed, directly or indirectly, against its members, including all the aforementioned parliamentarians except Mr. Cepeda, is still pending;
• Since 2008, the Procuradoría has given special attention to the case of Mr. Jaramillo and the Prosecutor’s Office has assembled a special team focusing on violations committed against members of the Patriotic Union and reactivated investigations into the assassinations of Mr. Jiménez, Mr. Posada, Mr. Valencia, Mr. Cepeda and Mr. Jaramillo;
• On 17 May 2011, the Prosecutor’s Office formally accused Mr. José Miguel Narváez, former Assistant Director of the Administrative Department of Security, of involvement in Mr. Cepeda’s assassination and ordered that he be remanded in custody; Mr. Narváez is currently being held and prosecuted in a number of cases in connection with his alleged collaboration with paramilitary groups;
• Investigations with respect to the other murder cases are ongoing; in the case of Mr. Posada, a suspect, Mr. Baquero Agudelo, accepted a plea bargain and his case was sent to court for sentencing along with a request from the Prosecutor's Office that the relevant available documents be examined with a view to identifying other presumed culprits; in the case of Mr. Jaramillo, the Prosecutor's Office stated that on 20 May 2011 Mr. Carlos Arturo Lozano Guillén, Director of the daily Voz, and Mr. Ricardo Pérez González were heard as part of the investigation and that the legal status of Mr. Alberto Romero, former chief of the Administrative Department of Security, who had previously come under investigation, still had to be determined and further evidence taken,

Considering that both the Office of the Chief Prosecutor and that of the Procuradoría confirmed, on the occasion of the Committee Vice-President’s visit to Colombia, that the pursuit of justice in this case remained critical; the current Chief Prosecutor had developed a new methodology focusing on the most serious crimes and reconstructing the context in which they had taken place; the Prosecutor’s Office had identified the case of persecution of Patriotic Union members as a priority and was trying to bring together the various legal proceedings being conducted across Colombia,

Considering further that, according to the information provided during the Committee Vice-President’s visit to Colombia, Mr. Cepeda’s murder has been declared a crime against humanity,

1. Thanks the competent Colombian authorities for their cooperation and for receiving the Committee’s Vice-President;

2. Takes note with great interest of the new approach taken by the Chief Prosecutor; is pleased that his Office and the Procuradoría remain fully committed to shedding light on the murders of Patriotic Union congressmen;

3. Wishes to ascertain exactly what steps the authorities are taking, in line with the ruling by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the case Mr. Cepeda’s murder, to establish full accountability for this crime; wishes to receive confirmation that trial proceedings against Mr. Narváez have meanwhile started and to know whether his statements have helped shed further light on the extent of State responsibility for the crime and on the identity of those involved;

4. Wishes to know whether the murders of the other Patriotic Union congressmen and the death threats against Mr. Motta have also been declared crimes against humanity; wishes to ascertain whether or not the Prosecutor’s Office has decided to bring charges against Mr. Romero in the case of Mr. Jaramillo’s murder, and to receive detailed information on the steps taken in the investigations being conducted to elucidate, to the extent possible, the other assassinations;

5. Reaffirms that these cases, which relate to the assassination of members of Congress as part of the large-scale persecution of a political party, are of direct concern to Congress; trusts that, through its oversight function, Congress is doing its utmost to help ensure that ongoing efforts to elucidate the murders of and death threats against Patriotic Union parliamentarians are pursued and that the State of Colombia fully implements the outstanding elements of the ruling of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the case of Mr. Cepeda;

6. Trusts that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights is steadily advancing in its consideration of the Patriotic Union case; wishes to ascertain the stage reached in its examination and whether a time-line exists for its completion;

7. Requests the Secretary General to convey this resolution to the competent authorities and to the source; also requests the Secretary General to transmit the resolution to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights;

8. Requests the Committee to continue examining this case and to report back to it in due course.

Note: you can download a complete electronic version of the brochure "Results of the 128th IPU Assembly and related meetings" in PDF format (file size 1'058 Kb approximately). This version requires Adobe Acrobat Reader, which you can download free of charge.

HOME PAGEHUMAN RIGHTSMAIN AREAS OF ACTIVITYIPU STRUCTURE AND DOCUMENTS