A criminal structure that was allegedly involved in the crime of a human rights defender in Boyacá was dismantled

• The Office of the Attorney General, the National Police and the Army arrested eight people in Boyacá and Cundinamarca. 

• With this result, there is a clarification rate on affectations against human rights defenders of 63.11% 

The Attorney General, Francisco Barbosa Delgado, revealed important investigative advances to clarify attacks and crimes against human rights defenders during a visit to Villavicencio (Meta) on the occasion of the Human Rights Day.  

In a joint operation, the Special Itinerant Group of the Office of the Attorney General, the Elite Corps of the National Police and the National Army Battalion (Batallón Sucre), arrested 8 alleged members of a criminal organization that would be responsible for the murder of the human rights defender, José Horacio Triana Parra, President of the Community Action Board in the rural area El Carmen, in Otanche (Boyacá). 

In the judicial proceedings carried out simultaneously in Boyacá and Cundinamarca, 11 shotguns, 49 shotgun and rifle cartridges, and primers were seized. 

According to the investigations, the victim was murdered on July 19, 2018 in the rural area Los Cocos as he strongly rejected extortions, displacements, threats and other illegal activities carried out by the criminal gang in the rural area of ​​Otanche. 

For these facts, the Office of the Attorney General will charge 8 detainees with aggravated murder; forced displacement; trafficking, manufacture or possession of firearms; and conspiracy to commit a crime. 

“The social leaders and the respect for human rights is transcendental for the Office of the Attorney General. Today, with this fact, we can tell the country that we have exceeded 52% of the clarification of crimes against social leaders and we have reached the unprecedented figure of 63%”, stressed the Attorney General, Francisco Barbosa. 

To date, the Itinerant Special Group has made progress in 255 cases. The Office of the Attorney General makes this information public for reasons of general interest. 

The information contained in this press release corresponds to the narration of the objective news provided by the officials in charge of carrying out the criminal investigations within the Office of the Attorney General. By the time this communication is disclosed, the legal status of the people mentioned is still pending to be resolved by the competent judicial authority, always under the presumption of innocence contemplated by Article 29 of the Political Constitution and Article 7 of Law 906 of 2004.