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Last Updated:12/20/01
Letter from 68 members of the House of Representatives, December 20, 2001

December 20, 2001

The Honorable Colin Powell, US Secretary of State
The Honorable John Negroponte, US Ambassador to the United Nations
The Honorable Roger Noriega, US Ambassador to the Organization of American States

Dear Sirs:

We write out of strong concern for the safety of four members of the Colombian Congress, who are currently in the custody of that country's largest guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).  We ask for your assistance in the hope that, in coordination with allies, the UN, and the OAS, you can generate the international pressure that offers the best hope for securing their prompt release.

The four representatives are the latest victims in a rash of kidnappings and murders of Members of Congress that has plagued Colombia during the past year.  Guerrilla and paramilitary groups -- all on the State Department's list of foreign terrorist organizations -- are implicated in these cases.  We are particularly concerned by what seems to be a deliberate targeting of the country's legislative branch by these terrorist groups.

During this period, four Colombian legislators have been murdered:

  • Representative Diego Turbay, killed (along with several members of his family) by the FARC on December 29, 2000
  • Representative Jairo Rojas, killed by the paramilitary United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), on September 6, 2001
  • Representative Octavio Sarmiento, killed by the AUC on October 2, 2001
  • Representative Luis Alfredo Colmenares, killed by the AUC on October 8, 2001

Several other legislators and their family members have been kidnapped and released, or forced out of the country by threats.  Today four Members of Congress remain in the custody of the FARC.  In their cases, it is vitally important that the United States and the international community act swiftly to encourage their release:

  • Senator Luis Eladio Perez, kidnapped by the FARC on June 20, 2001
  • Representative Oscar Lizcano, kidnapped by the FARC on August 5, 2001
  • Representative Orlando Beltrán, kidnapped by the FARC on August 28, 2001
  • Representative Consuelo González de Perdomo, kidnapped by the FARC on September 10, 2001

We strongly and unequivocally condemn the Colombian guerrillas' and paramilitaries' deliberate targeting of legislators -- just as we denounce these groups' violations of the rights of tens of thousands of ordinary Colombians.

We urge you to immediately take all appropriate action to secure the release of the four legislators currently being held hostage.  We also encourage you to seek ways to end this ongoing assault on Colombia's legislative branch.  We suggest that such action be multilateral -- in coordination with other countries, or under UN or OAS auspices -- as these crimes against elected representatives deserve the condemnation of the entire world, not just the United States.  The US government can play an important role, however, in initiating such action.

As members of the US Congress, we cannot stand idly by while colleagues in an allied democracy are murdered or taken hostage. We encourage you to act promptly on their behalf.

Sincerely,

  1. Cass Ballenger
  2. Robert Menendez
  3. Mark Souder
  4. William D. Delahunt

  5. Sam Farr
  6. Benjamin Gilman
  7. James P. McGovern
  8. Frank Wolf
  9. Tom Lantos
  10. Maurice Hinchey
  11. Cynthia McKinney
  12. Zoe Lofgren
  13. Lloyd Doggett
  14. Joseph Crowley
  15. Shelley Berkley
  16. Earl Blumenauer
  17. Barbara Lee
  18. Christopher H. Smith
  19. Elton Gallegly
  20. Alcee Hastings
  21. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
  22. Tammy Baldwin
  23. Howard Berman
  24. James Leach
  25. George Miller
  26. Collin Peterson
  27. James P. Moran
  28. Jim Turner
  29. Adam Schiff
  30. Lucille Roybal-Allard
  31. Amo Houghton
  32. Jim Davis
  33. Dan Burton
  34. John Mica
  35. Barney Frank
  36. Robert Wexler
  37. Steve Rothman
  38. Donald Payne
  39. Earl Hilliard
  40. Brad Sherman
  41. Grace Napolitano
  42. Gary Ackerman
  43. Sherrod Brown
  44. Joe Hoeffel
  45. Rosa DeLauro
  46. Mark Steven Kirk
  47. Nancy Pelosi
  48. Nita Lowey
  49. Diane Watson
  50. Jan Schakowsky
  51. Gregory Meeks
  52. Michael Capuano
  53. Eni H. Faleomavaega
  54. Jo Ann Davis
  55. Bob Barr
  56. Eliot Engel
  57. Constance Morella
  58. John Conyers, Jr.
  59. Jim McDermott
  60. Dennis Kucinich
  61. John Olver
  62. Jerrold Nadler
  63. Xavier Becerra
  64. Henry J. Hyde
  65. Pete Sessions
  66. Lee Terry
  67. Doug Bereuter
  68. Dan Miller
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