By R. Renee Yaworsky
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America
PUERTO ASIS, Colombia—A small Colombian town has been gripped by panic after three teens who were named on online hit lists were murdered. Many local families have reacted by moving out of the area or sending their children away to safety.
Three hit lists, containing 90 names, were posted on the social networking website Facebook. Those named were youths, threatened with death if they did not leave the town Puerto Asis. According to a local official, some of the names on the lists were nicknames only known and used within the youths’ group of friends.
The message on Facebook read in part: “Please, as a family, urge them to leave town in less than three days, otherwise we will be obligated to realize acts such as those of August 15.”
On August 15, Diego Jaramillo, 16, and Eibart Ruiz, 17, were shot and killed while riding a motorcycle between Puerto Asis and Puerto Caicedo; soon afterward, the first hit list was posted online containing their names.
Five days later, Norbey Alexander Vargas, 19, was murdered in Puerto Asis after his name was included in one of the ominous lists.
Although officials at first believed the lists to be a prank, they have now launched an investigation aided by Internet experts. The Facebook page has been blocked.
Puerto Asis is a small town of 70,000 people, located in the remote jungles of southern Colombia near Ecuador. The names on the Facebook hit lists indicated that most if not all of the youths mentioned were from Puerto Asis.
Colombia is a country at war with various militant anti-government groups and violent gangs. The infamous FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) group and a dangerous gang called Los Rastrojos have ties in the area.
Internet hit lists are new to Colombia, but similar threats have been signed and publicly displayed by right-wing paramilitaries, naming alleged “drug addicts and prostitutes.” In 2005, the paramilitaries were demobilized and splintered off into numerous criminal gangs.
It is believed that criminal gangs in Colombia consist of 4,000 to 9,000 members and operate in 24 of the country’s 32 states.
The Colombian ombudsman Volmar Ortiz issued an alert, indicating that the Los Rastrojos gang may be responsible for the recent murders and hit list intimidation. Ortiz’s warning said the gang “executes violent acts, spawning community conflicts, imposing their will, intimidating and dispensing punishment against those culturally and socially stigmatized.”
For more information, please see:
LA Times-COLOMBIA: Deaths of 3 teens feed fear over Facebook threats-26 August 2010
Time-Colombia’s Facebook Hit List: Drug Gangs 2.0-26 August 2010
ABC News-Facebook Death List: 3 Colombian Teens Killed-25 August 2010
