REPORT Nº 3/07 PETITION 1145-04 ADMISSIBILITY Miryam Eugenia Rua Figueroa Et Al. (COMUNA 13) COLOMBIA February 27, 2007 I. SUMMARY 1. On October 27, 2004, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (hereinafter “the Commission” received a petition lodged by the Inter-disciplinary Group for Human Rights (“the petitioners”) in which it was alleged that members of paramilitary groups, with the acquiescence and participation of agents of the Republic of Colombia (hereinafter “the State”, “the Colombian State” or “Colombia”), threatened and usurped the property of Miryam Rúa Figueroa and her family in Comuna 13 of the City of Medellín, Department of Antioquia, causing her forcible displacement in June 2002. 2. The petitioners allege that the State is responsible for the violation of the right to humane treatment, freedom of association, the rights of the child, movement and residence, private property, participation in government, a fair trial and judicial protection, established in the American Convention on Human Rights (hereinafter the “Convention” or the “American Convention”) to the detriment of Mrs. Rúa Figueroa and her family. The state, for its part, asked the Commission to declare the case inadmissible on the grounds of non-compliance with the requirement of prior exhaustion of domestic remedies, envisaged in Article 46(1) of the American Convention. The petitioner, for its part, invoked the application of exceptions to the requirement of the prior exhaustion of domestic remedies envisaged in Article 46(2) of the American Convention. 3. Having examined the parties’ positions and the admissibility requirements provided for in Articles 46 and 47 of the Convention, the Commission decided to declare the complaint admissible for the violation of Articles 5(1), 8(1), 16, 19, 21(1), 22, 22(2), 23 y 25 taken in relation to Article 1(1) of the Convention, to notify the parties, and to publish this decision. II. PROCESSING IN THE COMMISSION 4. The IACHR registered the petition as No. P1145-04, and having carried out a preliminary analysis of its content, proceeded on November 23, 2004 to transmit a copy of the pertinent portions to the State, giving it a two month deadline in which to supply information in accordance with Article 30(2) of the Regulations. The State presented its observations by means of a note DDH.GOI/56107/2586, on November 1, 2006. III. POSITION OF THE PARTIES A. Position of the petitioners 5. The petitioners indicate that Comuna 13 of the city of Medellín is made up of 22 neighborhoods that house 130,000 families, the majority of which survive on incomes below the minimum wage. They indicate that these conditions encouraged the appearance of illegal types of organization, and this was why military operations against the local population became ever more frequent and aggressive. 6. The petition indicates that during 2002 various military operations were carried out in Comuna 13 in the city of Medellín. On May 21, 2002, the so-called “Operation Mariscal” took place, the first of various military intrusions that took place that year in the neighborhoods of the Comuna involving joint forces of the Army and Police. They indicate that nearly 1,000 troops from the Army, Police and the Administrative Department for Security (DAS) entered 1