Thursday, November 18, 2010

Rights activist=terrorist supporter, yes they are.

Rights Activist Arrested in Colombia

BOGOTA – A human rights activist who is eight months pregnant was arrested in the northeastern Colombian city of Bucaramanga on charges of ties to leftist FARC guerrillas, colleagues said Wednesday.

Carolina Rubio Esguerra was jailed on the orders of prosecutor Luz Daris Navas, according to the Movement of Victims of State Crimes, or Movice, and the Committee of Solidarity with Political Prisoners Foundation.

Rubio stands accused of belonging to the 24th Front of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, based on the testimony of two anonymous witnesses, Movice said in a statement.

Both witnesses are apparently FARC deserters receiving benefits under a government reinsertion program, Movice said, calling on the national government and the Attorney General’s Office to release Rubio from custody.

In a separate statement, the foundation noted that Rubio was part of a delegation which recently traveled to Brussels for the annual assembly of the International Office of Human Rights-Accion Colombia, a coalition comprising around 30 European NGOs.

Rubio told the gathering in the Belgian capital that at least 22 activists were slain in Colombia during the first 75 days under President Juan Manuel Santos, who took office Aug. 7.

The International Office expressed “concern that a human rights defender on the verge of giving birth is detained just as she returns to Colombia after having denounced the grave situation of human rights” in her country. EFE

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