By Prensa Latina,
Bogota : A group of 63 US democratic congresspeople addressed a letter to Colombian President Alvaro Uribe that was published on Wednesday in this capital, asking him to reject publicly recent comments by his advisor Jose Obdulio Gaviria.
The letter, which was also signed by some Republican legislators, denied that Gaviria had commented pejoratively against the march on April 6 against violent actions by paramilitary groups.
According to versions quoted in the letter, the Colombian president’s collaborator called the protest organizers as “allied members” of the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia).
The US congresspeople said in the letter that since Obdulio Gaviria made his comments, six people’s leaders have been assassinated and many have been physically attacked and harassed.
The March 6 march was summoned by the National Movement of Victims of State Crimes and numerous political and social organizations.
The Congresspeople are requesting that President Uribe adopts a firm public position to support those who promote and protect human rights.
A letter had already arrived in late March, signed by 22 non-government organizations, accusing the presidential advisor of favoring an “atmosphere of intolerance.”
The letter, to which local political circles have granted great significance, was published on Tuesday in Washington, in a meeting held at the Capitol, related to the Free Trade Agreement between the United States and Colombia.
In that activity, coordinated by the AFL-CIO Union Federation Chair John Sweeney, democratic Senator Sherrod Brown, from Ohio spoke, and said opposition to the FTA was “a moral issue.”
One of the organizers of the march against the paramilitary groups, National State Crime Victim Movement leader Ivan Cepeda Castro, who asserted that those forces continue operating in Colombia, also attended the meeting at the Capitol.