Front Line is deeply saddened by the assassination of human rights defender and community leader Walberto Hoyos Rivas on 14 October 2008. Walberto Hoyos Rivas was a member of the Comisión Intereclesial de Justicia y Paz (CIJP) based in the humanitarian district of Caño Manso in the zone of Curbaradó, Chocó, Colombia, where he worked on behalf of displaced people.

Further Information

On 14 October 2008, at approximately 1pm, Walberto Hoyos Rivas was leaving a community meeting when he was approached on the motorway which connects Caño Manso to Belén de Bajirá by two men on motorcycles who have been identified as paramilitaries. One of the men, driving a blue Honda motorcycle, shot Walberto Hoyos Rivas, killing him. Following the initial shooting the men left the scene before returning approximately five minutes later and repeatedly shooting Walberto Hoyos Rivas in the face in an attempt to disfigure him. The assassins then reportedly stole his mobile phone and the phone that the community had used to activate early warnings.

On the same day as he was killed, Walberto Hoyos Rivas had been called by the Penal Court of Antioquia to give testimony in the trial of the abduction and murder of the community leader, Orlando Valencia, taken against the paramilitaries Julio Cesar Silvar Borja, and Pablo José Montalvo. Walberto Hoyos Rivas had previously testified to the court regarding how they had planned and executed the enforced “disappearance” of Orlando Valencia on 15 October 2005 and his murder on 24 October 2005.

Front Line previously wrote to you on 2 October 2007 concerning a previous assassination attempt connected with the aforementioned case. This occurred on 17 September 2007 when a man entered the home of Walberto Hoyos Rivas and his brother Miguel in Belén de Bajirá and fired a gun, seriously wounding both men. This case resulted in the decision of the Inter-American Court on Human Rights to ask the State to adopt “such measures as may be necessary to effectively protect the life and the right to humane treatment of the members of the Consejo Comunitario del Jiguamiandó (Community Council of Jiguamiandó) and the families of Curbaradó.”

During this case Walberto Hoyos Rivas had also testified about the usurpation by paramilitary organisations of collective territories for agro-industrial projects in the Bajo Atrato region: the planting of oil palms, intensive deforestation and extensive cattle-raising and the development of a paramilitary economic strategy in the region. In August 2007, Walberto and Miguel Hoyos Rivas had also played a key role in the return of eighty displaced families to Caño Manso. The families had been forcibly displaced by illegal armed groups in 1997.

Following their recuperation from the assassination attempt in September 2007, Walberto and Miguel Hoyos Rivas recently returned to the Bajo Atrato region. Walberto Hoyos Rivas had security measures provided by the Ministries of the Interior and of Justice which included a bodyguard from the Administrative Department of Security and a car. However, on the day of the assassination, those in charge of Walberto Hoyos Rivas´ security had not come to work, saying that the vehicle that they used for his protection had been damaged.

Front Line believes that the assassination of human rights defender Walberto Hoyos Rivas was motivated by his activities in defence of human rights, in particular his work as a community leader working with displaced families in the Zone of Curbaradó. In view of this, Front Line is particularly concerned for the safety of Miguel Hoyos Rivas, the brother of the deceased, and that of the returned community of Caño Manso. It is of particular concern that to date there have been no arrests concerning the attack against the Hoyos brothers in 2007.

Front Line is concerned that this latest assassination forms part of an increasing trend of harassment of human rights defenders and members of the community in the area of Curbaradó such as the threatening phone calls made against members of the CIJP in August 2008 and the kidnapping of one of its members. Front Line is also concerned by the proliferation of illegal armed groups in the humanitarian zone of Curbaradó.