African palm who have plantations in the collective territories of the communities, and the
growing control exercised by these groups in the region.
D.3.
Observations of the State
24.
The State indicated that, within the framework of compliance with its general
obligations, it was implementing all the actions available to it to ensure the rights of the
communities of Jiguamiandó and of Curvaradó in relation to their collective territory. In
particular, as regards “the withdrawal of the military personnel from the area” and the
presumed abandonment in which this situation left the beneficiaries of these measures, it
recalled that these “arrangements change, always remaining near to and around the
communities.” Regarding the presumed surveillance of Enrique Petro, the State indicated
that the “National Army is near his home, providing the perimeter protection required and
agreed upon.” In relation to the alleged “presence of paramilitary groups in the area
‘protected by the security forces,’” the State reiterated its commitment to “eradicate all the
illegal groups that are committing acts of violence, including the emerging bands that are
involved in drug-trafficking.” In this regard, it referred to the operations of the Army and of
the National Police aimed at “guaranteeing the physical safety of the communities and
territories of the Jiguamiandó and the Curvaradó river basins.” Lastly, regarding the alleged
abuses by business people and illegal occupants who refuse to restitute land, the State
indicated that the Prosecutor General’s Office was conducting several investigations into the
crimes of threats, land usurpation, and conspiracy to commit crime related to the
inhabitants of the areas of the Jiguamiandó and of the Curvaradó. In particular, it stressed
that the Quibdó Sectional Prosecution Directorate “had filed 26 cases before the courts
based on criminal conduct perpetrated against members of the communities beneficiaries of
these provisional measures”.
D.4.
Considerations of the Inter-American Court
25.
The Court observes that the State has not contested the facts presented by the
representatives and, in this regard, referred to the measures it has adopted to respond to
the said situations. Consequently, the Court reiterates that Article 1(1) of the Convention
establishes the general obligations of States Parties to respect the rights and freedoms
recognized therein and to ensure their free and full exercise to all persons subject to their
jurisdiction, under any circumstances. The State is especially obliged to ensure the rights of
the members of the humanitarian zones of Nueva Esperanza, Pueblo Nuevo, Caño Claro and
El Tesoro, and of the five biodiversity zones known as Erasmo Sierra, Enrique Petro, Familia
Tuberquia, Ligia María Chaverra and Efrén Romaña.
E.
Request to lift the provisional measures
26.
As already mentioned in this Order (supra having seen paragraph 4), on several
occasions the State has requested the lifting of the provisional measures ordered in this
matter. Colombia has argued that the obligation to guarantee human rights signifies that
the State, in exercise of its sovereign domestic powers, is the first authority that must draw
on all its institutions to protect the rights of the persons subject to its jurisdiction.
Therefore, it indicated that the protection ensured by the inter-American system for the
protection of human rights is of a reinforcing and complementary nature, pursuant to the
Preamble to the American Convention on Human Rights. The State indicated that, from the
procedural perspective of the principle of subsidiarity, “the jurisdictional intervention that
justifies [the] special mechanism of protection [represented by the provisional measures], is
subject to either a lack of action by the State concerned in cases of extreme gravity and
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