2011 JusticeMaker Adriana Patricia Castaño Román

Adriana Patricia Castaño es una de nuestros ganadores del concurso JusticeMakers 2011 organizado por International Bridges to Justice. Lleva años trabajando como abogada, particularmente en el campo de los derechos de los jóvenes en la ciudad de Medellín (Colombia). Es activista de la Red Juvenil de Medellín desde 1996 y anteriormente participó en grupos de juventud en el noroeste de Medellín, en actividades de comunidad, y en organizaciones de participación ciudadana que trabajan para el cambio social.

Patricia ha estado organizando actividades para abogados de defensa penal con el objetivo de mejorar sus habilidades legales, pero también entre los estudiantes y grupos jóvenes según la parte de la sociedad que representen (tribus urbanas). Con el proyecto, vio que las personas no tienen un conocimiento claro sobre la legislación actual, lo que propicia  que los agentes puedan abusar de su autoridad sin recibir ninguna resistencia por parte de la población en general. Aunque este tipo de detenciones se presentan en todos los barrios de la ciudad, se observan sectores críticos donde las detenciones son continuas y dirigidas a un tipo de público en especial, como por ejemplo jóvenes salidos del estereotipo de la sociedad cotidiana.

Medellín es una de las ciudades del país con más decretos que limitan la movilización, dirigidos a disminuir la protesta social o la circulación de jóvenes a determinadas horas. La policía, en su tarea por “limpiar la ciudad”, ya ha logrado desplazar a los jóvenes de ciertos sectores, son perseguidos de manera permanente. El derecho a la libertad personal frente a detenciones arbitrarias es un problema en Colombia. Es una violación de derechos humanos cotidiano que parece no ser atendido porque los sujetos víctimas representan el sector “marginal” de sociedad capitalista.

En la ciudad de Medellín, donde nuestra JusticeMaker Patricia ha implementado su proyecto, el motivo para realizar una detención administrativa es la sospecha. Y normalmente, los “sospechosos” o “raros” son los jóvenes que por su apariencia física no corresponden al “patrón normal” establecido (piercings, tatuajes, tribus urbanas…); los que pertenecen a sectores socioeconómicos bajos de la población; los que se dedican a actividades artísticas en la calle (cantantes, vendedores ambulantes…); etc. Son movimientos de detención administrativa abiertamente inconstitucionales y violan derechos fundamentales como la libertad de expresión, la igualdad, la libertad de conciencia, la libre circulación.

La creación de un grupo de trabajo amplio conformado por abogadas/as unido a la buena aceptación de las personas de la ciudad hace que el proyecto tenga muy buenas expectativas en su continuidad y duración en el tiempo por ser la libertad la que siempre está en riesgo en sistemas de corte autoritarios. Han publicado también un blog en internet que contiene las detenciones arbitrarias más recientes en Colombia.

Uno de los objetivos de Patricia es incrementar las denuncias de detenciones arbitrarias y que la gente aprenda cuáles son los límites de la Policía, que conozcan sus derechos para defender su libertad, y que sepan que existen estrategias legales que han de ser aplicadas cuando las detenciones son ilegales. Después de su Proyecto, cuyo fin principal es detener el abuso y las restricciones al derecho de libertad personal de las víctimas jóvenes en Medellín, su idea es seguir trabajando con abogados para proveer servicios a estas personas víctimas de la  detención arbitraria, desde el primer momento del arresto hasta el final del proceso.

International Bridges to Justice agradece su trabajo en hacer respetar el derecho a la libertad de expresión, en contra de las detenciones arbitrarias llevadas a cabo en el ejercicio del mismo. Gracias a activistas como ella, nos acercamos al fin de la injusticia en el mundo.

For English version, click here.

2011 JusticeMaker Adriana Patricia Castaño Román

Adriana Patricia Castaño is one of the winners of the 2011 JusticeMakers competition organized by International Bridges to Justice. She has worked as a defender for years, particularly in the field of the rights of youth in the city of Medellin (Colombia). She has been an activist for the Red Juvenil of Medellin since 1996, and previously a participant in youth groups in the north-west of Medellin, in community activities, and in grass-roots organizations working for social change.

Patricia has been organizing trainings for criminal defense lawyers to improve integral legal skills. She has also done outreach to students and young groups. With her JusticeMakers project, she has seen that many individuals do not have a clear knowledge about current legislation, which allows police officers to take advantage of their authority without getting any resistance from the population in general. Although this kind of detention happens in all the neighborhoods of the city, there are some critical areas where detentions are common and aimed at a particular type of public, such as young people who do not fit the stereotype of the everyday society.

Medellin is one of the cities in the country with the most decrees that limit the mobilization, aimed to reduce the social protests. The police, in their effort to “clean up the city”, have already succeeded in displacing young people in many  areas. The right to personal freedom against arbitrary detentions is a major in Colombia. It is an everyday violation of human rights that does not seem to be treated because the victims represent the “marginal” sector of the capitalist society.

In the city of Medellin, where Patricia has implemented her project, suspicion is enough for the police to admistratively detain someone. Often, the “suspect” is a young person who by his or her physical appearance, does not fit in the “normal pattern” set by the society (youth who have piercings, tattoos or interact with certain social groups). Individuals from low socio-economic sectors of the population are also targeted, as well as those that do artistic activities in the street (singers, street vendors). These detentions are unconstitutional movements of administrative detentions and violate fundamental rights such as freedom of speech, equality, freedom of conscience and freedom of movement.

The creation of a big team formed by lawyers, with the acceptance of the citizens, helps the project to have high expectations to continue working and last in time because freedom is constantly at risk in the authoritarian systems. They also published a blog on the internet that contains the recent arbitrary detentions in Colombia.

One of Patricia’s goals is to increase the reports against arbitrary detentions and that people learn what the limits of the police are their rights to defend their freedom, and that there are legal strategies to be applied when detentions are illegal. After her Project, of which the main aim was to stop abuse and restrictions to the right to personal freedom of young victims in Medellin, her goal is to keep working with lawyers to provide services to these victims of arbitrary detention, from the first stage of their arrest to the completion of prosecution.

Photo: An example of what is described by residents as the militarization of Medellín.  Significant police presence at a peaceful memoral walk for families of victims of forced disappearance in Comuna 13.

The passage of this bill comes after a recent increase in violence from anti-riot police at public protests, especially of students at public universities throughout the country and infamously in the cities of Bogotá and Medellín.  As youths at these public institutions continue to carry out peaceful protests against rising tuition costs and elitist practices, the response to these protests by anti-riot police–and the general militarization of the public universities–becomes more intense.

Similar to the common defense used to justify police abuse of power, the bill has been approved in the so-called interest of “public safety.”  It is clear, however, that the current administration intends with this bill to move beyond severe physical punishment of social protest, and toward an attempt to silence and eradicate its existence in the first place.

Photo: Outside the University of Antioquia.  I attempted to visit the university, a public institution in Medellín funded by public taxation, with a lifelong resident of the city.  We were both denied entrance to one of its “public” events.

Photos: (Medellín, Colombia)  Non-violent political activism in support of women’s rights, workers’ rights, leftist political interests and more, would become punishable by severe fines and imprisonment under the new bill.

This approval in the house of representatives does not make the matter final, yet.  But whatever the outcome, one action to take toward facing the issue is to focus on rights awareness, as IBJ Fellow Adriana and her group of lawyers have already begun to do.  When faced daily with police abuse and arbitrary arrest during public protests and demonstrations, it is key that youths–and all citizens–know their basic rights.  That is why Adriana, a lawyer and activist in Medellín, has begun holding rights awareness training sessions with students and professors about what exactly constitutes illegal behavior on the part of the police, and what to do when approached aggressively by an officer.

Photos: SiobhanRiordan.com / IBJ

These are some of the questions that were posed at a rights awareness training in Medellín, Colombia hosted by IBJ JusticeMakers Fellow Adriana and her group of fellow public defense lawyers, who spent the evening speaking with students and professors from the local university.  This meeting will be one of many sessions taking place this year as part of their 2011 JusticeMakers criminal justice project in Colombia focused on police abuse of power.  Their project has two aims: (1) to strategically and politically expose and denounce these abuses, and (2) to arm victims and potential victims of these abuses with the knowledge of their rights.

Photo: Attendees spend the start of the meeting contemplating and writing their own defintions of liberty.

Photo: Yani, a lawyer and member of JusticeMaker Adriana’s project, reads and discusses excerpts from the 1991 Colombian Constitution pertaining to the idea of liberty.

At this discussion, much time was devoted to the topic of arbitrary arrest.  Youths, such as university students at non-violent protests and demonstrations, are particularly terrorized by excessive abuse and arbitrary arrest by the hands of the police.  The students and professors at the meeting wanted to know what they should do in the event that they are approached aggressively by the police, and spoke passionately about it with Yani, a lawyer in Medellín and a member of JusticeMaker Adriana’s group that is implementing this project.

“There are only two situations in which you can be arrested,” Yani explained, “if you are caught in the act of a crime, or if there is an existing warrant for your arrest.  If a police officer says to you, ‘We’re going to the station,’ you say to them, ‘With pleasure, officer: what is my crime?’

“What will happen?  The officer will see that you are not an ‘x.’ You are an informed individual who knows that there is no justification for their actions, and therefore, they will respect you.”

For the dedicated lawyers implementing this project, knowledge and awareness are key aims.  They intend for individuals to leave trainings such as this one knowing that ‘you are not a nobody’: you are an informed citizen who knows their rights.

Photos: (Top row) Attendees discuss personal experiences with police abuse of power.  (Bottom row) Definitions of liberty: “The liberty to be what I want to be,” and “Liberty, only liberty.”  Rights awareness posters from the JusticeMakers project are distributed at the meeting, which explicitly define what type of behavior is considered illegal police abuse by using text and figures.

Photo: (Left to right) JusticeMaker Adriana Castaño Roman, Yani Vallejo, Paula Andrea García and Frank Varelas, four of the seven lawyers and activists from Medellín implementing this year’s JusticeMakers project in Colombia.

Photos: SiobhanRiordan.com / IBJ

Photo:  Diego, a youth of 25 years old, was arbitrarily arrested by anti-riot police near his home in Barrio Caicedo, Medellín.  Above, his left eye is still swollen and bloodshot from injuries inflicted by the police.

Diego is a painter and a self-taught musician who plays in a punk band and lives in Barrio Caicedo in Medellín.  One evening while walking home, he was arbitrarily arrested for being near a non-violent demonstration of people outside a public park in his neighborhood who gathered in support of a local resident who was being evicted.

The ESMAD (Escuadron Móvil Antidisturbios, or anti-riot police) are a notoriously brutal and aggressive branch of police, and upon noticing their arrival at the demonstration, Diego began to run to protect himself.  But he was stopped by a policeman on a motorcycle and surrounded by five ESMAD agents who refused to listen to his pleas that he had done nothing wrong and proceeded to throw him to the ground, kick him and release aerosol pepper spray into his eyes, mere inches from his face.  With his eyes badly burned, he saw hardly anything for the rest of the night.  The ESMAD dragged him by his arms into the patrol car –causing injuries that even now, a week later, he still suffers from– and drove him back to the local park, where many other youths had been detained in a large truck.  “It was terrifying not seeing, and not knowing where we were driving,” Diego said.  He heard an unidentified individual suggest to the police that he be taken to a health center for his wounds.  He was later released to friends who came to find him and helped him apply milk to his face to soothe his eye injuries.

During this incident many women, youths and children were indiscriminately attacked, as if they were not unarmed citizens.  “These excesses and abuses are committed daily,” explains JusticeMaker Adriana, “and are repeatedly justified on the grounds of maintaining ‘public order’.”

Photo:  Diego, supported by his friend Alex, meets with JusticeMaker Adriana to tell his story.

Even through his recounting of this story, Diego’s amiability and smile never faded.  His badly injured eyes watered and disturbed him constantly throughout the interview.  After showing us the wounds on his ribcage and arms, he explained that he still cannot lift his arms without profound pain, or dress in the morning without difficulty.  His eagerness to tell his story at all, and to add his name to a list of young individuals ready to publicly denounce the police abuses of power from which they have suffered, is exactly the kind of light that this group of lawyers and JusticeMaker Adriana are seeking to expose the issue of illegal arbitrary arrest in Medellín.

Photos: SiobhanRiordan.com / IBJ

Mí cuerpo es mío, mío, yo decido.”

(“Not the State’s, nor the Church’s,

My body is mine all mine, I decide.”)

– activist chant during pro-choice demonstration in Medellín

Photo: Pro-choice activists “flash” the public with their demands: Aborto Gratuito, Libre, Seguro, Legal. (Free, Open, Safe and Legal Abortion.)

Medellín, Colombia – A woman in Colombia may seek a legal abortion only if she finds herself in one of three specific situations: (1) if she becomes pregnant as a result of violation, (2) if the pregnancy puts her life or health in danger, or (3) if the fetus is known to have a fatal malformation.  (Sentencia C355/06 Corte Constitucional.) The punishment for a woman who has an illegal abortion is up to 3 years in prison and the punishment for a doctor or other person who performs the procedure illegally (even if medically licensed to do so) is also up to 3 years. Under Colombian law, women do not have the right to choose.  This fact, as well as the general status of women in Colombia’s patriarchal society, is something that the feminist activists of La Red Juvenil in Medellín are up in arms to change.

A subset of activsts at La Red Juvenil, a youth network, are dedicated to women’s issues and organize events focused on rights awareness and public activist demonstrations.  Their aim is to widen the dialogue about women’s issues, to educate, and to empower those in accord to act.  The group itself meets twice a month to read and analyze texts on feminist theory, discuss new projects and strategies, and to support each other in their collective effort to support their fellow female citizens.

Photos: JusticeMaker Adriana (pictured center, wearing white shirt) sings and dances with pro-choice feminist activists outside the Procuraduría Regional de Antioquia (Regional Attorney General’s Office, Antioquia) in Medellín during a public demonstration.

Photos: Isabel (pictured far left, both images), an activist with La Red Juvenil, speaks one-on-one with women and mothers from Barrio Llanadas about spousal abuse, maltreatment and sexual violation using personal questionnaires designed to demonstrate how women’s rights are directly applicable to their lives.  Rights awareness event organized by La Red Juvenil focused on educating women and schoolchildren about non-violence.

Photos: JusticeMaker Adriana (pictured left, center) and activists from La Red Juvenil attend an open seminar on women’s rights in the context of globalization and the capitalist system.

Photos: SiobhanRiordan.com / IBJ

Photo: Protester with youth network La Red Juvenil in Medellín. “YO MUJER MIGRANTE CONTRA EL CAPITALISMO, EL RACISMO Y EL PATRIARCADO.” / “I AM A MIGRANT WOMAN AGAINST CAPITALISM, RACISM AND PATRIARCHY.”

Photos: (Left) International Workers’ Day March, Medellín; May 1, 2011. (Top right) JusticeMaker Adriana marches with youth network La Red Juvenil.

And the colors were brilliant in Medellín on the first of May 2011.  Over two thousand people representing the fight for legal justice, political change, the rights of workers and the status of women got out their banners and their loud speakers and headed for “la marcha.”  I spent the morning before the march with a group of feminists from La Red Juvenil, a youth network in Medellín, who sang and painted themselves in excited anticipation of the protest.  One of them told me she had decided not to attend the march.  “Sometimes there is trouble with the police, and you have to run,” she said to me that morning.  “Le pasa,” she said.  “It happens.”

The avenue designated for the march was lined without pause by police.  The officers justify their heavy presence at the annual event as necessary for quelling disturbances to the procession.  Often groups of students from the local university who are impatient for change and not interested in non-violence will find ways to interrupt the march.  But it was clear to some attendees that the police also come in great numbers as a form of intimidation to peaceful protesters.

Photos: Police presence at the march.

Students did create unrest this year by throwing rocks and setting off small explosives amid the march.  The branch of police specializing in public disturbance called ESMAD, Escuadrón Móvil Antidisturbios (Mobile Anti-Riot Squad), filed in without hesitation and tear-gassed several parts of the long line of marchers in an effort to disperse the crowds.  During the tear-gassing, my companion in the march grabbed my hand and forced us through the masses and down a side street.  Through our red eyes, our wet faces and our struggle to breathe, he told me that “you have to run.  Everyone has to run, because the police will capture anyone.”  Arbitrary arrest, especially of young people, is a serious problem in Medellín, and is the focus of IBJ’s JusticeMakers project in Colombia this year.  Before the green gas over the dropped banners had dissipated, 27 young people had been detained.

Banners were recollected and most scattered protesters returned, and the march continued.  When another individual was detained and held in a police truck parked within a gas station, the crowd surrounded the area and demanded his release.  The ESMAD drove a high-pressure water cannon tank to the scene to subdue the unrest, but the protesters were successful and the man was released into a jubilant crowd.

Photo: Water cannon tank is driven to meet black-clad ESMAD police gathered beneath a gas station at the march.

The other detainees were not as fortunate.  Later in the day with several lawyers and JusticeMaker Adriana, a lawyer and activist in Medellín, I visited the police station were over half of them were being kept in callous conditions: outside the building between an exterior wall and an impromptu police barrier.  When Adriana approached the police chief to gain permission to interview the detainees, she was met with aggression.  “No me presione!” he shouted.  “Don’t press me!”  After heated discussion she was allowed to speak with them from the other side of the barrier, but was eventually forced away by the ESMAD who created a second barrier with their shields between the group of lawyers and the detainees.  In this manner the detainees were effectively denied their right to legal counsel.

As events like these continue, so the march continues.  JusticeMaker Adriana and many other lawyers and activists in the city are dedicated to protecting youth rights and exposing police abuse of power in Medellín.

Photos: SiobhanRiordan.com / IBJ