87
quit her job as community leader.424 Out of fear of retaliation, she had to move her residence several
times since November 2002; she is currently getting divorced from her husband; and her son has
become a drug addict.425
300. Ms. Rúa has testified before the IACHR how her family life changed for good with the
displacement “because of the difficulty in returning to get all of the things we had, since we left only
with the clothes on our backs, and were never able to recover the things we left in the house, because it
was all stolen and then, the entire property was destroyed.”426 Both she and her husband have had
trouble finding steady jobs during their displacement and, with regard to her children, she notes that:
They don’t like to talk about what happened, my younger daughter has vague
recollections of the house and always talks about or mentions going to the little house,
and my two older daughters do have many sad and painful memories of what we had to
experience, of the shootings, of all of the things we had to leave behind, of all of our
things, the photo albums, the clothes, the toys, they remember the people from the
neighborhood, a lot their experiences there.427
301. Ms. Mosquera – head of household – for economic reasons had to live separately from
two of her children during her displacement from Comuna 13.428 She described the separation of the
family and its impact as follows:
My other two children did not leave with me because we had no place for all of us to go, because
of our economic situation, because of a lack of support, out of fear of discrimination in other
neighborhoods, and because they would tell me why should we all go and suffer together that
instead they would stay and endure it all and if we get killed then there’s nothing else we can do.
Being away from my sons, especially the little boys was very difficult for me, they suffered a lot,
there was a lot of discrimination at school, they’d be told that their mother was a criminal (Mrs.
Socorro Mosquera cries and is silent for a long time). And my oldest child was also stigmatized at
429
work. And I have also suffered a lot, it all hurts me, I don’t know when they’ll leave us alone.
302. It follows from the proven facts that both Ms. Mosquera as well as her next of kin have
been the targets of a sequence of acts of violence which prevent them from living safely in Comuna
13.430
Ms. Naranjo – as head of household and the breadwinner for an extended family - lives in a
424
Annex 15. Statement of Luz Dary Ospina Bastidas received by GIDH addressed to the Inter-American Commission
on Human Rights, April 27, 2012.
425
Annex 15. Statement of Luz Dary Ospina Bastidas received by GIDH addressed to the Inter-American Commission
on Human Rights, April 27, 2012.
426
Annex 3. Statement of Miryam Eugenia Rúa Figueroa received by GIDH addressed to the Inter-American
Commission on Human Rights, April 27, 2012.
427
Annex 3. Statement of Miryam Eugenia Rúa Figueroa received by GIDH addressed to the Inter-American
Commission on Human Rights, April 27, 2012.
428
Observations of the petitioners dated August 16, 2006, pg. 1, Case file of provisional measures; Audio, IACHR,
st
Hearing, 131 Session, Cases “Comuna 13, 12.595 – Miriam Eugenia Rúa Figueroa, and 12.621 – Teresa Yarce, Mery Naranjo
and Socorro Mosquera, Colombia, March 12, 2008.
429
Annex 78. Statement of María del Socorro Mosquera received by GIDH c addressed to the Inter-American
Commission on Human Rights, on May 2, 2012.
430
Annex 78. Statement of María del Socorro Mosquera received by GIDH addressed to the Inter-American
Commission on Human Rights, on May 2, 2012.