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Rapid Response Network
RRN’s team of letter-writers responds to six urgent human rights cases each month to
- protect people living under threat
- demand investigations into human rights crimes
- bring human rights criminals to justice
- ensure that human rights crimes are not happening in the dark.
Save a life. Demand justice. Join the RRN!
RRN Letter
December 22, 2019
We are shocked at three assassinations that occurred during the national strike that started on November 21.
December 2 - Two unidentified attackers killed Manuel Santos Yatacue as he walked with his partner near the Elvira reincorporation zone in Buenos Aires in Cauca Department. Elvira is one of 24 areas where former members of FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) are based as they transition to civil society under the terms of the 2016 peace agreement. Manuel Santos Yatacue was a member of one of the local collectives establishing coffee production. Illegal armed groups, opposed to the peace process, are still vying for control over the illegal gold mining activities that continue there.
RRN Letter
December 1, 2019
December 1, 2019
Dear Governor Astudillo Flores:
We are shocked at the discovery of the body of indigenous community leader Arnulfo Cerón Soriano on November 20, under several tons of soil in a clandestine grave in the "El Aguaje" colony in Tlapa, Guerrero.
RRN Letter
November 26, 2019
November 26, 2019
Dear Sirs:
We are deeply disturbed by the killing of 18-year-old Dilan Cruz, who joined a demonstration in Bogotá on November 23, which was part of the nationwide strike that began on November 21. After suffering injuries from being struck on the head by a police tear gas canister, he died on November 25, on the day of his anticipated high school graduation.
RRN Letter
November 15, 2019
Please find attached our letter (November 15, 2019) that we sent to officials in Colombia about the burning of the boat and outboard motor belonging to journalist David Torres in Simití in Bolivar Department on November 6.
RRN Letter
November 14, 2019
Please see the attached letter (November 14, 2019) we sent to officials in Honduras regarding the assassination of journalist Buenaventura Calderón, killed by armed gunmen in front of his house on November 1. His wife was also killed in the attack.
RRN Letter
November 13, 2019
Excmo. Sr. Presidente Iván Duque Márquez
President of the Republic of Colombia
Sr. Fiscal General Fabio Espitia Garzón
Attorney General of Colombia
November 13, 2019
Dear Sirs:
We are shocked at the violent attacks on several indigenous people in less than a week in the Nasa Tacueyo reservation in Corinto, Cauca Department. Twelve were murdered, an assassination attempt on another, and others injured.
RRN Letter
November 12, 2019
We are horrified at the kidnapping and torture in Tegucigalpa of professor and union leader Jaime Atilio Rodríguez.
On October 28 Mr. Rodríguez was on his way to the bus in Tegucigalpa when he was taken in a vehicle, blindfolded, tortured, stabbed in the throat and left for dead after being dumped near the Choluteca River. Fortunately, on October 29, he was able to make a phone call which resulted in his rescue and hospital treatment. His vocal cords may be permanently damaged.
RRN Letter
November 11, 2019
We are very concerned about the disappearance of indigenous community leader Arnulfo Cerón Soriano. He was last seen by his wife at 7:45pm on October 11 when he left home to give a lecture in Tlapa de Comonfort, Guerrero. At about 12pm the next day, his vehicle, with the keys still in place, was found abandoned in the residential area of Magisterio. His whereabouts remain unknown.
RRN Letter
October 26, 2019
We are very concernedabout the escalation of violent deaths, primarily of women, in the Garfuna (African-Caribbean descendant) communities. Since the beginning of September, at least five women have been killed in Colón and Cortés Departments.
RRN Letter
October 25, 2019
We are writing to urge you to release all political prisoners in Honduras.
We understand there are still 15 imprisoned and that most have been charged with crimes in the past two years, after the disputed presidential election of November 2017 (which many call fraudulent). They are often detained on false charges, such as arson and property damage. They are unnecessarily and unjustly investigated for terrorism. Sometimes cases are heard in national jurisdiction courts that have no jurisdiction over the charges against them. All of this illustrates the systematic political persecution and targeting of pro-democracy activists opposed to the government. Honduran law and due process are being violated.