The Regional Corporation for the Defence of Human Rights (CREDHOS) has posted on social media:
“In an ecumenical, cultural and deeply symbolic ceremony, we paid tribute to our fellow human rights defenders, those who paved the way and those who today are the living seed of that persistence for a country with social justice and peace.
There, in front of the old office where this persistent project for life was born, we remembered their names and their struggles, but above all, their firm commitment to continue defending life and human dignity.”
CREDHOS was formed in 1987.
Peace Brigades International has accompanied CREDHOS since 1994.
The 1994 Peace Brigades International Annual Report notes that the request for PBI accompaniment came from CREDHOS following the murders of CREDHOS members Blanca Valero de Duran in January 1992, Julio César Berrio Villegas in June 1992, and Ligia Patricia Cortez (who worked on a CREDHOS backed educational project) along with two trade union members in July 1992.
Years later, in 2002, Human Rights Watch noted: “Blanca Cecilia Valero de Durán, CREDHOS: This human rights defender belonging to CREDHOS was shot and killed on January 29, 1992, in Barrancabermeja, Santander. The then-Colonel Rodrigo Quiñones Cárdenas, director of intelligence for Colombian Navy Intelligence Network 7, was believed responsible for her murder and scores of other political killings by government investigators.”
Iván Madero Vergel joined the CREDHOS Board of Directors in 1993 and assumed the presidency of CREDHOS in 2012 after ten years of exile in Spain (with some time spent in Canada during that period).
Ivan in 2012: “The political deterrence that PBI creates is fundamental. Receiving the accompaniment of Peace Brigades has been important in the life of CREDHOS. It allows you to move, it allows you to continue doing this work.”
PBI-Canada remembers Ivan Madero’s visit to Canada in November 2019 and our visit with them in Barrancabermeja in July 2022.
We continue to follow, with respect and affection, the work of CREDHOS.
