Find below the translation of two articles published in Switzerland, which should raise serious concern among all Colombian refugees in Europe and elsewhere, as well as all defenders of peoples’ and human rights.
Threat to Colombians in Switzerland
Christophe Koessler, Le Courrier, 27/10/2021
Translated by Joseph Hillstroem, Tlaxcala
Christophe Koessler is a journalist with the Swiss daily Le Courrier. @ChrisKoessler
The Geneva-based activist Alfredo Camelo, who was found dead in September, was allegedly hit with a bullet shot from a firearm. This information should be accepted with caution, but in the context of a growing threat to Colombian political activists.
In May 2021, demonstrators called on the United Nations and Swiss authorities to demand that Bogotá respect human life and the right to demonstrate. DR
On Sunday morning (Oct. 24), a well-known Swiss-Colombian activist found the inscription engraved on the rim of his car in Geneva: "AUC", for United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia, the name of the far-right paramilitary militia. In Colombia, the inscription is as good as a death threat. On closer inspection, the human rights defender, accompanied by a police officer, discovers that his tyre has been damaged by a puncture that could lead to it bursting once the vehicle is launched at full speed - the hypothesis is mentioned by the police officer according to the activist. "For me, this is an attempt on my life and that of my family," says the activist, who filed a complaint yesterday.
The case has a particular resonance, as almost at the same time Le Courrier received another piece of information that remains to be verified. The Colombian activist Alfredo Camelo, whose body was found on the banks of the Rhone River at the beginning of September, had been shot with a bullet from a firearm. We heard this from a police source who probably inadvertently confided in someone known to the editors.
Rumour or information? What is certain at this stage is that more than a month and a half after the events, the investigation into the circumstances of his death, now entrusted to the Geneva Public Prosecutor's Office, is not yet complete. If it was a suicide, why is the justice system taking so long to confirm this theory, people close to the case are asking themselves?
Contacted by Le Courrier, the public prosecutor's office, the only one authorized to speak about this case, replied that it "is not passing on any information, in view of the ongoing investigation which aims to determine the circumstances and causes of death".
Paramilitary in Switzerland ?
This does nothing to reassure the comrades and friends of Alfredo Camelo, nor, a fortiori, the Colombian activists, who are numerous in Switzerland. On September 27, National Councillor Stéfanie Prezioso (Ensemble à gauche/Together Left) submitted a question to the Federal Council, expressing concern for the safety of political refugees in our country in the wake of the death of the activist.
In its response, the Swiss government asserts that it had no information about the Camelo case. More generally, without going into the security of Colombian exiles, it replies summarily: "It cannot be excluded that individuals close to the Colombian paramilitaries are staying in Switzerland".
In recent weeks, other events have confirmed this hypothesis. Last Thursday, a Zoom meeting of members of the Colombia Humana party in Switzerland was hacked by a man who then threatened to kill the participants and their families, using the mafia-like and outrageous language of the paramilitaries.
