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The murder of the Lawyer  Jose Eduardo Umaña

 

He was a renowned jurist, professor, human right's defender and a lawyer. One of the most important lawyers of colombian History. Eduardo Umaña held the defense for the victims of the political genocide of some of the members of the  political parties “Patriotic Unión” and the Colombian Communist Party (PCC). He also served as a judicial advisor for the political prisoners and members of the opposition groups. He made a remarkable s work in processes as Verbal-Counselor for the penitentiary prison "La Picota" involving more than one hundred processes of members of the Guerrilla Movement M19 between the years 1979 and 1982. José Eduardo Umaña had an outstanding work in various processes of peace in which he verbally assisted armed groups in stages as the amnesty and pardon processes.

 

In his work as a lawyer, he performed a-deep investigative work looking to open back the criminal retrial for the murder of the leader and liberal presidential candidate, Jorge Eliécer Gaitán that took place on the 9th April 1948.  This is one of the most representative facts of the history of Bogotá that led to a revolt known as "The Bogotazo ".

 

José Eduardo Umaña Mendoza said that the worst of the assassination of Gaitán was not the legal part, but the political. Moreover, Jose Eduardo Umaña insisted that the murder of Gaitán was a political act and that the instigators of the crime belonged to the world of politics and the traditional parties.

 

Eduardo Umaña was a defender for the labor group of Sintrateléfonos (Bogotá Telecommunication´s Enterprise), of the Colombian Association of Television (ACOTV), the Union of Telecom Worker´s (Colombian Telecommunications company, nowadays private company), Sintraemcali (Cali Public Enterprise), the labor union of the Aqueduct of Bogotá, Ecopetrol´s Labor Group (U.S,O), and others. He also handled the case for the forced disappeareances of the Palace of Justice Siege;  he assisted other extrajudicial executions directed against political leaders; cases of the Arawak´s indigenous communities and students. Eduardo Umaña pushed through other national and international cases. Many of these cases pointed to the responsibility of the Colombian military forces joint together with paramilitary groups.

 

José Eduardo Umaña was murdered at noon on the 18th April 1998, while his wife was picking up his little son from the nursery to go to lunch all together. Eduardo Umaña was in his office in the District Nicolas de Federman at Bogotá when two men and a woman came into his office pretending that they were television reporters. Once they tied and holed up his assistant, they went to him and gave him three shots with an automatic pistol with a silencer.

 

Before  José Eduardo Umaña Mendoza already knew the risk in his practice, to which he responded:

"Better to die for something than to live for nothing."

 

Umaña was considered by many people as one of the best lawyers who have handled such important cases nationally and internationally. The people regarded him highly. His murder was a big loss for Colombia. Eduardo Umaña was an exemplary person for social justice. After his murder, it was performed a 24 hours National strike led by the labor groups of Simtrateléfonos and the U.S.O.

 

Eduardo Umaña was killed in the practice of the defense of the victims, the Human Rights and courageous denunciations of various crimes committed by agents of the state in alliance with the paramilitaries groups.

 

Nowadays the case of Eduardo Umaña´s murder courses at the Office of the General Attorney where there have been no responses. Given this, there is a petition to the InterAmerican Commission of Human Rights to interfere.

 

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