114
[My relatives h]ad to leave everything in Mapiripán, they had to go from one farm to
another […]. During those three years I had no news from them, I was very
frightened.240
181. Some of the next of kin of the victims – true survivors of the massacre – are
convinced that they cannot return to Mapiripán until they obtain justice regarding the
facts of the massacre. Several of them have also stated their deep concern
regarding the possibility of suffering new aggressions if they return to Mapiripán,
which is located in an area of paramilitary presence (supra paras. 75.a) and 76.f)).
In other words, their right to personal security is abridged by the situation of
displacement, both due to the situation they have faced and because they have not
been provided with the necessary conditions to return to Mapiripán, if they wished to
do so.
182. The Court must emphasize that Colombia, to address the situation of
domestic displacement, which is one of the greatest problems caused by the conflict,
has taken a number of legislative, administrative and judicial steps, including
multiple laws, decrees, documents of the Consejo Nacional de Política Económica y
Social (CONPES), presidential orders and directives. One of these noteworthy
measures is Law N° 387 of July 18, 1997, which defines the concept of displaced
persons and grants those who are in that situation a special legal status. A great
variety of public policies have also been developed in connection with the problem of
displacement, including production programs, alliances with the private sector and
various support programs (supra para. 96.61). Nevertheless, the Constitutional
Court of Colombia itself, when it decided on the aforementioned actions for
constitutional protection of rights, asserted “the existence of an unconstitutional
state of affairs regarding the situation of the displaced population due to the lack of
accord between the gravity of the detriment to the constitutionally recognized rights,
developed in the Law, on the one hand, and the amount of resources effectively
allocated to ensuring the effective exercise of said rights and the institutional ability
to implement the respective constitutional and legal mandates, on the other
hand.”241 Specifically, it found that despite the actions carried out by certain State
agencies to mitigate the problems of the displaced population and the important
progress attained, it has not been possible to comprehensively protect the rights of
the displaced population or to counteract the grave deterioration of their conditions
of vulnerability, primarily due to the precariousness of institutional capacity to
implement State policies and due to insufficient resource allocation.242
183. In the instant case, some of the next of kin displaced from Mapiripán have
been identified in the proceeding before this Court. In this regard, the Court decided
in this Judgment that non-identification of all the next of kin of the victims is due to
the very circumstances of the massacre and to the deep fear they have suffered
(supra paras. 96.47, 96.174 and 140 to 146). This same dynamics has made it
impossible to know exactly how many next of kin were displaced in this case, for
240
See statement rendered as testimony before a notary public (affidavit) by Yur Mary Herrera
Contreras on February 4, 2005 (file with statements rendered before or authenticated by a notary public,
page 4524).
241
See judgment T-025/04 of January 22, 2004, issued by the Third Appellate Chamber of the
Constitutional Court (file with appendixes to the final pleadings submitted by the representatives, volume
I, page 5163).
242
See judgment T-025/04 of January 22, 2004, issued by the Third Appellate Chamber of the
Constitutional Court (file with appendixes to the final pleadings submitted by the representatives, volume
I, pages 5166 to 5174).
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