PUBLIC STATEMENT

ATTEMPT ON THE LIFE AND PERSONAL INTEGRITY OF YENIFER RUEDA CARDENAS IN COMUNA 13 OF MEDELLÍN

We wish to express our concern and indignation at the acts against the integrity and the life of our friend YENIFER RUEDA CARDENAS, which took place on May 3, 2009 in the district of El Salado in Comuna 13 in Medellín.

Background:

Yenifer has lived all her life in the district of El Salado, high in Comuna 13. For several years she has been carrying out community work with youths and children, promoting grass-roots work from the point of view of the arts and from a psychosocial perspective, with the aim of preventing recruitment to the army and to illegal armed groups, and of promoting non-violence, conscientious objection, and anti-militarism. Her valuable work has led her to give speeches to the SEMINIS CORPORATION of which she is a member and founder, to the YOUNG PERSONS NETWORK OF MEDELLÍN, and to the PERIODICO PERIFERIA; her work has also been focused around organizing in the city, such as with the Association of Christian Youths.

During Operation Orion, undertaken by State agents, and which led to the consolidation of paramilitarism in Comuna 13, her brother was assassinated having refused to become involved with an armed group; this added further incentive to YENIFER´s work in the area, and she became a witness to resistance to violence which for years has plagued this commune of the city; this very work brought her to the attention of legal and illegal armed groups some time ago. The following are the most relevant points:

* Last October in the context of developing the MEDELLÍN SOCIAL FORUM, whose central themes were poverty and the disconnection between public home-centered services; when YENIFER was with other companions canvassing in the district of Las Independencias in this same Commune, she was approached by various men who identified themselves as paramilitaries, who attempted to remove her flyers and the cameras which they were carrying. When she refused there was a verbal confrontation during which she was threatened by them; however, YENIFER never left the area.

* In the course of her community work she has presented various denouncements concerning human rights violations committed in this area by armed groups, which has left her in great danger.

* On May 3, 2009, at 6.30pm, as she was going home, YENIFER as approached by three men in the Salado sector, who forcefully took her bag and started to punch her, leaving her with various wounds to the arms where she tried to protect herself against attacks on her face. She responded by telling them not to attack her, that she was a student, but the men did not say a word, but threw her to the ground and removed her belongings; from there she was taken, by a neighbor who saw her, for treatment at the San Javier Unit with serious wounds.

Taking into account these acts, we consider that:

* Life is of unquestionable value, which cannot be endangered for any reason, and there is no justification for the kind of attack suffered by our companion YENIFER.

* There is an increasingly serious threat concerning the violation of the rights of the female population in that part of the city, and the risks are rising.

* Impunity is rife in Comuna 13, in which the presence and control of paramilitaries has been permanent and is frequently denounced by the community; and the new acts that are denounced today are a reflection of the attacks on human rights which the residents of this commune are commonly forced to endure.

* Silence, as well as the statements by part of the municipal administration to the effect that the area peaceful, have led to total invisibility of the militarisation in the area; for this reason, it is astonishing that a commune which has the greatest military concentration in the city should should show such a high count of human rights violations and poverty.

On this basis we demand:

* That such State institutions as the Prosecutor´s Office, the Office of the Inspectorate and the Permanent Human Rights Unit, carry out respective investigations which seek to protect the integrity and the life of YENIFER CARDENAS RUEDA and her family.

* That institutes working in defence of human rights, such as United Nations and the Human Right´s Ombudsman´s Office, move forward and follow up this case, in order to protect YENIFER CARDENAS RUEDA´s life.

* That the Prosecutor´s Office investigate the acts to which YENIFER CARDENAS RUEDA was subjected, as the Constitution permits; not as an isolated incident, but as part of a systematic weakening of human rights in recent years in Comuna 13, particularly against women and community leaders.

Signed,

MEDELLIN YOUTH NETWORK (RED JUVENIL DE MEDELLIN)
CORPORACION SEMINIS
PERIODICO PERIFERIA
CODEHSEL

6 MAY 2009