Colombia must pay US$7.8 million in damages to relatives of 12 judicial workers killed in a 1989 massacre by army-backed paramilitaries, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ordered.
The May 11 ruling made public by the victims' lawyers Friday is the largest yet against Colombia by the Costa Rica-based court, which investigates human rights violations when justice cannot be guaranteed in national courts. The judgment cannot be appealed.
"It's the first time that the state has been found guilty of collaborating in the murder of other agents of the state,'' said Rafael Barrios, a lawyer for the victims.
President Alvaro Uribe was in New York on Friday, and a spokesman for his office said no official was available to comment on the ruling. The government previously acknowledged its responsibility in the case and has in the past paid damages ordered by the court, an autonomous branch of the Organization of American States.
The 12 victims of the La Rochela massacre were killed while investigating another paramilitary massacre of 19 merchants in Santander state. Three judicial workers survived the massacre.
The court said the government did not fully investigate the killings or links between the cattle rancher-financed militias and army commanders. According to the court's ruling, Colombia must pay damages adding up to US$7.8 million to 99 family members of the victims.
"This case established clearer than ever the participation of the state in the creation of the paramilitary groups,'' said Michael Camilleri, a lawyer who worked on the case for the Center for Justice and International Law in Washington.
The court also ordered the government to take steps to protect judicial investigators who regularly face threats from drug traffickers, paramilitaries and other illegal armed groups.
Established in 1979 with the purpose of enforcing and interpreting region-wide treaties on human rights, the Inter-American Court's ruling are binding for the 25 nations that have submitted to its authority.
The court also criticized the government's handling of a paramilitary peace process, under which some 30,000 right-wing fighters and their warlord bosses have turned in their weapons.
It was the sixth time in the last three years that the court has ruled against Colombia for not fully investigating or compensating victims of paramilitary groups working in collusion with state officials.
STEPPING UP: Diminished US polar science presence mean opportunities for the UK and other countries, although China or Russia might also fill that gap, a researcher said The UK’s flagship polar research vessel is to head to Antarctica next week to help advance dozens of climate change-linked science projects, as Western nations spearhead studies there while the US withdraws. The RRS Sir David Attenborough, a state-of-the-art ship named after the renowned British naturalist, would aid research on everything from “hunting underwater tsunamis” to tracking glacier melt and whale populations. Operated by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), the country’s polar research institute, the 15,000-tonne icebreaker — boasting a helipad, and various laboratories and gadgetry — is pivotal to the UK’s efforts to assess climate change’s impact there. “The saying goes
Floods on Sunday trapped people in vehicles and homes in Spain as torrential rain drenched the northeastern Catalonia region, a day after downpours unleashed travel chaos on the Mediterranean island of Ibiza. Local media shared videos of roaring torrents of brown water tearing through streets and submerging vehicles. National weather agency AEMET decreed the highest red alert in the province of Tarragona, warning of 180mm of rain in 12 hours in the Ebro River delta. Catalan fire service spokesman Oriol Corbella told reporters people had been caught by surprise, with people trapped “inside vehicles, in buildings, on ground floors.” Santa Barbara Mayor Josep Lluis
Police in China detained dozens of pastors of one of its largest underground churches over the weekend, a church spokesperson and relatives said, in the biggest crackdown on Christians since 2018. The detentions, which come amid renewed China-US tensions after Beijing dramatically expanded rare earth export controls last week, drew condemnation from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who on Sunday called for the immediate release of the pastors. Pastor Jin Mingri (金明日), founder of Zion Church, an unofficial “house church” not sanctioned by the Chinese government, was detained at his home in the southern city of Beihai on Friday evening, said
The Venezuelan government on Monday said that it would close its embassies in Norway and Australia, and open new ones in Burkina Faso and Zimbabwe in a restructuring of its foreign service, after weeks of growing tensions with the US. The closures are part of the “strategic reassignation of resources,” Venezueland President Nicolas Maduro’s government said in a statement, adding that consular services to Venezuelans in Norway and Australia would be provided by diplomatic missions, with details to be shared in the coming days. The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that it had received notice of the embassy closure, but no