the community and used long-range weapons indiscriminately against the civilian population, arguing that that they were securing the area for a subsequent procedure by the Attorney’s Office.1 In June 2002, the so-called “Operation Potestad” was carried out jointly by members of the Fourth Army Brigade, the Police belonging to the Police Command of Antioquia, the DAS, the Air Force, the Technical Investigation Corps (CTI) and the Attorney General’s Office. 7. The petitioners point out that Miryam Eugenia Rúa Figueroa, President of the Communal Action Committee (JAC) – Barrio Nuevo, was informed by a neighbor from Barrio Nuevo - La Loma that her name was on a list of persons that the paramilitaries intended to assassinate. Consequently, on July 26, 2002, she fled the neighborhood along with her daughters, minors of age, Bárbara Sol Palacios Rúa, Ursula Manuela Palacios Rúa and Valentina Estefanía Tobón Rúa, to the municipality of Bello.2 8. They allege that, on June 27, 2002, paramilitaries violently attacked throughout the district. Informed by her neighbors, Mrs. Rúa discovered that her house had been occupied since it was known to be the house of the president of Communal Action. The petitioners allege that that the house was progressively destroyed and that the furniture it contained was looted. 9. On July 10, 2002, the Municipal System for Disaster Prevention and Assistance (SIMPAD) certified that Mrs. Rúa and her family had been victims of dispossession of their home due to armed confrontations between the paramilitaries (autodefensas) and the militias.3 The petitioners consider that therefore the rights of Mrs. Rúa and her family to free movement, residence and private property have been violated. They affirm that Mrs. Rua and her family were displaced from that time onwards and that they have been unable to return to the neighborhood because of the complex security situation in the area. 4 Similarly, they allege that due to the arbitrary looting of their home and their displacement, the mental health and morale of Mrs. Rúa and her family were gravely impaired. 10. They point out that, at the time of these events, Miryam Rúa Figueroa was a community leader and that as a consequence of her forcible displacement she was prevented from taking an active part in the JAC. They allege that she had to be replaced in the position she held by the vice-president of the Committee, and could no longer continue working for the community. For this reason, they allege, her rights of association were infringed. 11. Similarly, they add that as an active member of the JAC 5, Mrs. Rúa, unlike other citizens, exercised fully her right to participate actively in the political affairs that affected the community.6 In this way, they consider that Miryam Rúa was prevented from exercising her political rights, in spite of being popularly elected president of the JAC, and thereby prevented from fulfilling the term for which she had been elected. 1 The petitioners point out that various attorneys (fiscales) had informed that the police force requested their authorization before the operation with a view to carrying out raids in order to implement orders of arrest. However, they denounced the fact that these orders had been issued some time earlier by different attorneys, and not with the purpose of destroying the armed organizations in the sector. The results of the operation were nine deaths (among them two children), 39 wounded and 34 persons arrested. They allege that the leaders of the community complained that what had happened amounted to the onset of a policy of war to remove the militias from these neighborhoods, enabling paramilitaries to take control. Original petition received by the IACHR on October 27, 2004, pages 5-6. 2 The family of Miryam Rúa is composed of her three daughters and her partner, Gustavo de Jesús Tobón Meneses. All of them were forced to abandon their normal place of residence. Original petition received by the IACHR on October 27, 2004, page 4. 3 File No 289, certified on July 10, 2002. Annex to the original petition received by the IACHR on October 27, 2004. 4 The petitioners point out that it was known that various persons who had returned to the neighborhood had been disappeared or found dead in different places around the city of Medellín, and that this prevented the indefinite return of Mrs. Rúa to her neighborhood. 5 Art. 8 of Law 745 (2002) and its regulations, Decree 2350 (2003), define the JAC [Junta de Acción Comunal – Communal Action Committee] as a non-profit, solidarity-based civic, social, and community social-management organization, which has legal personality and its own assets and is formed voluntarily by the residents of a place who join forces and resources to achieve integral and sustainable development, based on the exercise of participatory democracy in community-development management. 6 The certificate of legal recognition (personería jurídica) and the authorities of the JAC Barrio Nuevo issued by the Secretary of Community Development of the Municipality of Medellín, in which it confirms that as of February 19, 2002, Miryam Eugenia Rúa Figueroa exercised the position of president. 2