Excmo. Sr. Presidente Gustavo Petro Urrego
President of the Republic of Colombia
Sra. Luz Adriana Camargo
Attorney General of Colombia
despacho.fiscal@fiscalia.gov.co
September 24, 2024
Dear President Petro and Attorney General Camargo:
We write to you today out of grave concern for Jani Silva, president of the Association for the Integral Sustainable Development of the Amazonian Pearl (ADISPA), a community organization managing the Peasant Reserve Zone of La Perla Amazónica in the municipality of Puerto Asís, Putumayo Department.
On September 10, Jani Silva received a phone call threatening her life, in which the caller described a truck that was provided to ADISPA by the National Protection Unit (UNP) and explicitly stated plans to blow it up with her inside. Later that same day, unknown men with high-speed motorcycles were seen on two occasions prowling around Jani Silva’s house and ADISPA’s office in the town center of Puerto Asís.
Jani Silva has dedicated her life to protecting the Amazon and all forms of life from illegal armed groups and multinational corporations. She leads reforestation programs, conservation efforts, biodiversity and water monitoring efforts, and works tirelessly to defend the rights of her community and advocate for peace. She is also a recipient of the Colombia National Human Rights Prize, and was recognized for this award both in Washington, DC, and by the United Nations in 2023.
Since 2017, Amnesty International and the Inter-Church Commission for Justice and Peace (CIJP) have documented a string of attacks and threats against Jani Silva and other ADISPA members. State protection under the UNP has proven insufficient to prevent at least seven different security incidents against her. Since January 2020, she has experienced persecution, illegal digital surveillance, death threats, shots fired into her home, and she uncovered a plan for her own assassination. We are deeply concerned that armed groups present in this part of the country are directly threatening civil society organizations like ADISPA.
Given that in 2023 more environmental defenders were killed in Colombia than in any other country in the world, and in light of the continued threats against Jani Silva, we strongly urge you to:
- conduct a prompt and thorough investigation into the threats against Jani Silva, publish the results, and bring those responsible for these threats to justice
- provide timely and comprehensive protection measures to guarantee the life, physical and psychological integrity, and safety of Jani Silva and her community
- guarantee that all human rights defenders, in particular environmental defenders, are able to carry out their legitimate human rights activities without fear for their lives
Sincerely,
Brian J. Stefan Szittai Christine L. Stonebraker-Martínez
Co-Coordinators
copies:
Daniel García-Peña, Ambassador of Colombia to the US ~ via email, US mail
Augusto Rodríguez Ballesteros, Director of the National Protection Unit
José Luis Caballero Ochoa, Rapporteur for Colombia , Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) ~ via email, US mail
UN: Juliette De Rivero, Representative in Colombia of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights ~ via email
CIJP: Comisión Intereclesial de Justicia y Paz / Inter-Church Commission for Justice and Peace
US Embassy: Francisco Palmieri (Chargé d’Affaires, ad interim); Adam Levy (human rights) ~ via email
US State Department: Desk Officer for Colombia ~ via email
US Senators from Ohio: Brown & Vance ~ via email
US Representatives from Ohio: Beatty, Brown, Jordan, Joyce, Kaptur, Latta, Miller, Sykes ~ via email
18 SEP 2024_AmnestyInternational-CIJP_Colombia
