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The Federation of Personerías warns that the sixth category municipal authorities, where the conflict is most experienced, have a budget of 13,000 pesos per inhabitant to fulfill their function of defending human rights. Three of them relate their experience in the midst of violence, the absence of the state and the pandemic. They ask for urgent solutions.
In November 2019, the country learned that seven victims of a National Army bombing in Caquetá were minors. The first complaints about this event were made by the representative of the Puerto Rico municipality, Herner Carreño, who knew first-hand what had happened in the territory and, before the event, communicated to the Ministry of Defense about the forced recruitment of boys and girls in the Department. After his statements, the official was threatened.
Municipal and district authorities have a constitutional duty to safeguard human rights, protect the public interest, and monitor local authorities. In fact, the representatives and their offices tend to be the first resource, the first stop, on the route of attention to citizens, mainly to victims or people whose rights have been violated. Despite being part of the Public Ministry, together with the Attorney General’s Office and the Comptroller’s Office, the representatives are going through a critical moment: the budget does not increase, despite the fact that every day they are responsible for more functions, and almost 60% had their budgets cut. during 2020, according to the registry kept by the National Federation of Personerías (Fenalper).
As if that weren’t enough, the personeros have been the target of threats, evictions and some have suffered intimidation by public officials, who are under political control.
In Colombia there are 1,103 legal entities associated with Fenalper. This federation has the support of international cooperation such as the European Union and the Swedish Embassy. The latter has highlighted the role of legal entities as “fundamental to promote peacebuilding and generate trust between state institutions and citizens.” In fact, this figure of the ombudsman exists in the Swedish constitution since 1809; The “ombudsman” was called the person in charge of guaranteeing the rights of the inhabitants independently of the traditional powers.
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To find out their current situation and why they are asking for structural solutions, Colombia 2020 He spoke with three representatives, who work in Valle del Cauca, Boyacá and Norte de Santander. They prefer not to reveal their identity for fear of reprisals against them, but they narrated what it is like to lead the personerías in the middle of the armed conflict, the absence of the state and the pandemic.
“It is impossible to name all the functions that the legal entities have, but broadly speaking there are four: the first and most important is the defense of human rights. The second is the control of public servants at the municipal level. The third is the intervention for the guarantee of the parties in different civil or disciplinary processes. Also, transversally, they serve the most vulnerable populations, including all of them victims of the armed conflict, displaced persons and the migrant population. And so. With all these functions, the budgets are very scarce and especially for a sixth category personality ”, says Jesualdo Arzuaga, executive director of Fenalper.
Arzuaga refers to the category of the municipality. Law 146 of 1994 dictates the norms to decentralize local power and there they were categorized according to the number of inhabitants. Those with a population equal to or less than 10,000 inhabitants are considered to be in the sixth category; these represent 88% of all municipalities in the country. From then on, those with higher ranks continue to the special category, which has more than 500,000 inhabitants.
The truth is that the sixth category municipalities have been some of the hardest hit by the armed conflict, such as El Bagre, Caucasia, Cáceres (in Antioquia); Cartagena del Chaira, San Vicente del Caguán (in Caquetá); Caldono, Corinto or Santander de Quilichao (in Cauca); Tumaco (Nariño); Sardinata (North of Santander, Catatumbo area), and Arauquita or Saravena (in Arauca). Territories where the armed conflict, coca cultivation, the dispute over drug trafficking and recruitment routes converge.
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For these municipalities, the annual budget has a maximum of 150 legal minimum wages in force, that is, by 2021, about 136 million pesos. With this, it could be said that only 13,000 pesos per inhabitant are allocated to guarantee their rights, but this amount is much lower because the legal entities must pay salaries, social security, transportation and other administrative expenses.
“Especially for us the representatives of municipalities of the fourth, fifth or sixth category is very difficult. Resources are insufficient for the proper performance of our duties. Many times we do not even manage to cover all the actions that concern us because there are no human personnel, and in some cases there is no internet. Quite unfortunate circumstances have been seen ”, denounces one of the representatives interviewed for this article.
The Federation assures that bills have been presented to strengthen legal entities, especially those with fewer available resources and the most vulnerable population in their territories to serve. “But they have all fallen, there is no political will to structurally change this situation, as we do not have the money to be lobbying congressmen … The projects to reformulate the budget of the entities that are present in all the municipalities of the country As guarantors of human rights, they do not give votes, and why would it be convenient for them to strengthen an entity that controls and oversees the mayors? ”says another of the representatives.
And therein lies one of the edges of the problem. This is how another official relates: “We have been chosen for five years by a merit contest. By not having any connection with the Administration, we have reached representatives to different municipalities that we do not belong to and that has generated a total apathy against the performance of our function. What I am going to do with this is that previously the mayors and the councils set up representatives of the same political line and the representatives were, let’s say, like one more secretariat of the mayor’s office, because the control function was not really fulfilled ”.
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“At this time we are faced with cases such as that of Valle del Cauca and Bolívar, in which a mayor began to request the office of the personero, to evict him, because he needed to set up the Family Police Station there, a situation that in one way or another it attacks the function of legal authority and its autonomy ”, he adds.
And what the representatives say is that “the issue has worsened to the extent that new laws are drawn up and out and new functions are imposed on us, but nothing is said about the budget. Because they are not the same functions that the legal entities had 20 years ago as they are now, and there we continue with the same 150 minimum wages, because if you realize it, our budget depends on a salary that does not increase even 4% a year. It is very sad that one here sometimes does not even have what to buy a ream of paper with ”.
The budget problem is a part, but here life is also debated. To date, since 2008, the Federation of Personerías has registered seven murders of municipal officials. And at least 10% of current officials have received threats against their life and personal integrity, some have led to attacks.
Some of the examples of this reality are: the case of the representative of San Cayetano (Norte de Santander), who received several gunshot wounds; the resignation that the representative of Milan (Caquetá) had to present before the unjustified dismantling of his protection scheme; the representatives of Peque and Andes (Antioquia), who were displaced from the municipalities where they performed their functions due to threats, and the most recent attack that occurred on March 6, 2021 against the municipal representative of San Diego (César), whom they hit the truck with a firearm.
The information reviewed so far was given in detail to Margarita Cabello, Attorney General. In addition, the Federation had a meeting where they were able to report the current situation to the Deputy Attorney General, Antonio Emiro Thomas, who was a magistrate of the Supreme Court of Justice. The representatives hope that by making their requests known to the other branches of the Public Ministry (Comptroller’s Office and Attorney General’s Office), their requests will finally be given relevance and they will resonate, perhaps, “in the capital or in the spheres of power where they are taken. the decisions”.
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