Official Statement of the Afrodescendent community of Villa Rica, Cauca
In the presence of different social actors, state entities and international organisations, the Afrodescendent community in the town of Villa Rica, Cauca, lodges a complaint against the state public prosecutor, regarding the arrest of the young woman MARI SOLIANA COLORADO. They have labelled her as belonging to the revolutionary armed forces of Colombia, FARC-EP, and have accused her of a series of crimes.
The claim is based on the following facts:
• Mari Soliana Colorado belonged to a group of folkloric dance called ‘Chango’in the town of Villa Rica, in 2001.
• The dance group ‘Chango’ participated, in 2001, in a folkoric and cultural forum which took place in Toribio, Cauca.
• During this cultural forum the members of the Chango dance group were surrounded by members of an armed group who obliged them to fill in a form with personal details and have photographs taken.
• Mari Soliana took her baccalaureate studies in the Senon Fabio Villegas de Villa Rica school between 1999 and 2004 and afterwards studied at the University of Valle where she started to read Pure Chemistry, later changing to Social Work at the same university.
• Mari Soliana is an independent worker dedicated to the art of typical hairdressing of Afrodescendent ethnicity.
• For approximately six years she has belonged to the Christian Church Centre of Faith and Hope.
• She is a married woman and mother to a minor (child under eighteen).
• She is known in the community as a respectable, exemplary and hardworking citizen, well-mannered and of moral and religious principles.
• On 5 September 2012, she was captured by agents of the DIJIN, in accordance with a judicial order, based on a passport sized photograph taken in 2001, at the cultural forum mentioned.
• This month in September when the capture took place, she was in the eighth semester of Social Work and was taking a class in plastic arts at the Fidelina Echeverry school in the town of Puerto Tejada, Cauca.
For these reasons, we raise our voice in PROTEST, REJECTION AND DISGUST at the actions of the public prosecutor in the capture and deprivation of liberty of the young MARI SOLIANA COLORADO. The public prosecutor has not undertaken sufficient investigation to link her to the crimes of which she is accused, and does not have evidence to determine her guilt.