We never want to have to redact press release or letters for comarades with whome we share our dreams and hopes...
With sadness and rage we announce the death of Carlos Alberto Pedraza, found dead on wednesday january 21st . His all life turned around the defense of justice, equality, liberty self determination and dignity.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7GuZHV1S1E
Carlos Alberto was a graduate of the Universidad Pedagógica Nacional, a leader of the teachers’ movement, and a member of the following organizations: the Nunca Más project, the Movement of Victims of State Crimes, the Central-Eastern Regional Association of the Political Movement of Social and Popular Masses of Colombia, and the Congress of the Peoples, which is a member organization of the National Agrarian, Peasant, Ethnic, and Peoples’ Summit.
Carlos Pedraza’s lifeless body was found in an uninhabited area of the district of San Bartolomé known as “las marraneras.” The corpse showed signs of violent blows to the head that may have been the cause of death. This zone is known for it's paramilitary presence Carlos Pedraza had no personal, employment, social, or political connections in Gachancipá, a town situated about 60 km from the capital.
On Wednesday morning, January 21, 2015, apparently, officers of the Gachancipá-Cundinamarca detachment of Sijín, the Colombian national police force, made telephone calls to contact numbers for the Comercializadora in an attempt to locate Carlos’s family members.. During the first call, they stated that they had found a person fitting Carlos’s description who was carrying several Comercializadora business cards. During the second call, they stated that Carlos had suffered a motorcycle accident ( he didn't had a moto and didn't drove ) and that they needed to locate a family member. During the third call, they stated, “he was found dead in the pines from a blow to the head.”
The last time Carlos was seen, he was on his way from his home in the Molinos II neighborhood of the locality of Rafael Uribe Uribe in Bogotá to the locality of Teusaquillo (also in Bogotá) to attend a meeting relating to the Movimiento’s farm product marketing project known as “Comercializadora Agropecuaria El Zipa.” he was not carrying any money or valuables, and that all he had with him was a cheap cell phone that was not found with the body.
The autopsy report issued on January 26 informs us that Carlos died from an impact of a bullet in the nape, from the rear to the front. The director of the Institute of Medicine and Judicial Forensics, Carlos Eduardo Vales, has declared that it was a "violent death related to a lesion on the scalp caused by gunshots […] from a low-speed weapon". The forensic doctor will use the various chemical analyses to determine the shooter’s distance, results that will hopefully be used in an investigation of this assassination.
A lot of question are without answers around this enforced disappearance and this assassination. We demand that an investigation and legal action necessary to identify the perpetrators of this crime to be made. These crimes are a direct threat to social organizations and to their ability to safely carry out their social and political work.
We ask for solidarity, so that our rage and idignation can give us the strenght to pursue Carlos ideal.
We ask you, once again to particpate in this urgent action.