25 labor activists, journalists, government officials and students
in Barranquilla are threatened to be murdered through a pamphlet signed
by the Aguilas Negras.
The pamphlet says that those threatened have ties to guerrilla movements FARC and ELN and because of that have become “military targets” for the paramilitaries.
Human rights defender José Humberto Torres, included on the list, says to be concerned, because the threat is also aimed at the families of those accused of collaboration with leftist illegal groups.
Barranquilla Police Commissioner Oscar Gamboa called for calm, denying any paramilitary presence in the coastal city. According to Gamboa, the city, through “working with intelligence and state institutions (…) has avoided criminal gangs like this from having any position in the Barranquilla area.”
In claiming that criminal gangs are
absolutely operating in Barranquilla, Colombia’s largest port on the
Caribbean Coast, Torres says the police are being “ignorant” in their
attitude towards the situation.