The Head of State made a balance of the progress protecting trade unionists, compensation to victims and measures implemented to guarantee human right protection in the country.

Montral, Canadá, June 10 (SP). At the International Economic Forum in Montreal, President Álvaro Uribe Vélez exposed the measures implemented by the Colombian Government to preserve Human Rights. He affirmed that “we are working everyday to overcome impunity”.

The Head of State explained to the press, that the dismantle of paramilitarism in Colombia, has been one of the facts that has helped the most in protecting trade union leaders’ lives, considering that one of the goals of this terrorist group was to “murder workers”.

He added that one of the advances of the fight against impunity is that now there are hundreds of convictions of workers’ murderers and many of them have been imprisoned. 

“The Government is protecting 10 thousand people individually, and two thousand are workers. That protection has been efficient. None of those protected, has been murdered. That protection costs 40 million dollars a year”, he highlighted.

The Leader explicated how in Colombia victims did not claim because they were too afraid of terrorism. And now, around 220 thousand victims have begun a compensation process thanks to the security policy.

“On July, we will begin the compensation of the first 12 thousand victims with monetary compensation” he affirmed.

The President pointed that these advances were acknowledged by the International Labor Organization, last week in Geneva, who said that Colombia is a case of a country in progress.

President Uribe explained to the journalists that Colombia has a permanent office in the United Nations for Human Rights since 1994, and it was also the first country to voluntarily present itself for the exam in human rights at the end of last year.

Transparent Security

The Head of State reminded that his Government has never doubted in sanctioning violations of Human Rights, or what has been called false positive (murder of civilians presented as dead guerrillas members).

 That is why the Government has implemented some actions to ensure that the country has transparent Armed Forces. One of these measures is the active participation of citizens, in which the President himself, the Minister of Defense and Military Leadership members, periodically answer about possible irregularities, live on national television.