The Director of the National Police, General Óscar Naranjo, highlighted a reduction in attacks against trade union members and teachers during this year, but he also regretted the murders of policemen as well as the rise in crimes against indigenous people by the Farc.

Bogota, July 27 (SP). Attacks against trade unionists and teachers had a significant reduction in the current year, the Director of the National Police, General Óscar Naranjo, said this Monday.

That was stated by the General, during the Armed Forces Report on Human Rights, held at the Casa de Nariño and led by President Álvaro Uribe Vélez.

“In the first seven months of this year we perceive a positive tendency, let’s say, toward the number of aggressions against trade unionists, particularly about murders. Last year, in the first seven months, criminals killed 13 trade unionists; this year we have 4 cases less”, he pointed.

He added that “concerning to teacher’s unions, the diminishment is from 13 to 8 cases and for regular teachers, from 6 to 2 cases”.

Murder of Indigenous People

As for the attacks to indigenous communities, General Naranjo repelled “for the abuse and systematic actions developed by the Farc against indigenous populations, who have denounced this aggressions, particularly in Nariño and Cauca.

59 indigenous have been killed during this year, which compared to last year is 26 more cases and an increase of 78 per cent related to that indigenous population”.

He explained that at least 22 indigenous people were killed in one single assault in the Barbacoas zone in Nariño.

Mourning for assistant superintendent

The Director of the National Police informed that “in the current year 106 policemen have been killed. That means that every 48 hours a police is murdered in Colombia”.

He talked about one recent case, the one of the assistant superintendent Yimmy Téllez Ortegón, occurred last week in the ‘Liberator Route’, and indicated that the institution, despite its grief, is grateful for the solidarity in this matter.

“This is really a great contradiction, 200 years after our independence and one terrorist group as the misnamed National Liberation Army (ELN) is pretending to dominate Colombians with terrorism” the official said.

Journalist killed in Cauca

General Naranjo also highlighted the work done to clarify the murder of journalist José Everardo Aguilar, perpetrated last April 24 at El Bordo, Cauca.

He explained that they were prompt with this case “for considering it as very important, following presidential instructions, and making it as a priority, taking into account that last year no one single journalist was been killed, and this year we sadly had that situation”.

He explained how they proceeded with the Local Attorney’s Office of Cauca, to capture Arley Manquillo Rivera, accused of being the material author and imprisoned at the San Isidro penitentiary in Popayán.

“He belongs to a criminal band that operates in that zone. The motive is linked with the facts denounced by the journalist, weeks before his death in a communitarian radio station. That is why the Attorney’s Office decided that there were enough elements and proofs, collected during a month a half, to determine a capture order for first degree murder” he finished.