Colombia’s constitutional court has warned of threats being received by relatives of justice officials murdered by paramilitaries.
It said state agencies have committed serious flaws in the protection of relatives of 12 justice officials shot dead by paramilitaries in January 1989.
Relatives have been followed and illegally wiretapped, actions which indicate they are in real danger, according to the ruling released by the court and reported by Colombian media Wednesday.
The court said, “The lack of diligence of the state in implementing measures to prevent the materialization of the threat of the armed group, “Black Eagles Capital Bloc,” demonstrates an outright ignorance of the Inter-American Convention on Human Rights and the principles of international law.”
A group of 15 justice officials were kidnapped and shot by paramilitaries in the village of La Rochela, in the northern department of Santander, while they were investigating other massacres — only three survived.
In May 2007 the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled that the Colombian state had violated the group’s human rights, and ordered the government to investigate the massacre in a diligent manner — specifically the possibility that senior officials knew, or should have known, what the paramilitaries were planning.
