Excmo. Sr. Presidente Iván Duque Márquez, President of the Republic of Colombia
Sr. Fiscal General Francisco Barbosa Delgado, Attorney General of Colombia
April 23, 2021
Dear Sirs:
We are saddened and horrified at the murder of Dr. Luis Octavio Gutiérrez Montes, manager of the César Uribe Piedrahita Hospital in Caucasia, one of six municipalities in the Bajo Cauca region of Antioquia Department. He was shot on April 13 by unknown assailants as he was moving through a sector known as Parque de las Ceibas. He died the following day in a hospital in Montería, in the bordering department of Córdoba.
Dr. Gutiérrez Montes was a dentist who had served as a specialist in quality management and health audit and director of the ESE Hospital San Juan de Dios de Ituango, in the Northern Antioquia region. In 2019, Dr. Gutierrez had denounced before the Cooperative of Hospitals of Antioquia (COHAN) alleged acts of corruption that were being committed in his hospital. In May 2020, he assumed the management of the César Uribe Piedrahita Hospital in Caucasia with the intent of serving in that role for a period of four years. As manager, he denounced several irregular events occurring in the municipality, including a union that outsourced health personnel and wanted to declare bankruptcy to evade payments.
Dr. Gutiérrez is the second worker at César Uribe Piedrahita Hospital to be shot dead in less than a year. Anesthesiologist Oscar Pastrana, who also denounced irregularities in 2019, was found dead in Bogotá in December 2020.
On April 14, the Ministry of Health denounced the murder of Dr. Gutiérrez, noting that there have been 45 incidents against Medical Mission (public health) team members so far in 2021, including threats, personal injuries, and impeding the transit of drugs and equipment. Bajo Cauca is a region rife with turf wars among armed groups: the paramilitaries Clan del Golfo and Los Caparrapos, as well as the guerrilla rebel group ELN (Ejército de Liberación Nacional) and dissident factions of the FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia).
We strongly urge that you
- conduct a thorough and transparent investigation into the murder of Dr. Gutiérrez Montes, publish the results, and bring those responsible to justice
- take all necessary steps to address the irregularities in management at the hospital in Caucasia, Antioquia Department.
Sincerely,
Brian J. Stefan Szittai and Christine Stonebraker-Martínez, Co-Coordinators
