“The paramilitary groups are present in Bogotá in different forms,” the local Ombudsman says. The paramilitary groups have a certain degree of power in half of the city’s neighborhoods, says the report, something the local government and the police so far have denied.Police commander Rodolfo Palomino says he’s not aware of the presence of groups like the Águilas Negras in Bogotá. “According to the information we have there are no paramilitary groups in the city. There’s criminal groups, but we can’t say they’re paramilitary,” he added.Several neighborhoods already complained about being threatened by paramilitary groups over the past few weeks, after pamphlets, threatening the population started being spread in numerous neighborhoods in the capital.The report includes testimonies by anonymous inhabitants of some of these neighborhoods, denouncing the violence and intimidationof the paramilitaries.
If you file a complaint, they kill you immediatelyOne day I found the body of my 76-year old friend in a garbage bag. he had been cut into pieces. A few days earlier he decided to file a complaint against the murderers (in the neighborhood). The image of my friend on the bottom of the black bag has been haunting me until today. I also remember how twenty families were forced to leave the neighborhood, after being threatened by these killers. (anonymous testimony of a Suba resident)
Earlier this week also the Canadian embassy denounced having received threats by the Águilas Negras, for granting exile to threatened “parapolitics” witnesses.
