GLOSSARY
ACCU- Autodefensas Campesinas de Córdoba and Urabá; the Peasant Self-Defense Group of Córdoba and Urabá, a paramilitary group led by the Castaño family in northern Colombia.
AUC- Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia; United Self -Defense Groups of Colombia.
auxiliador/a de guerrilla - guerrilla supporter.
CCJ - Comisión Colombiana de Juristas; Colombian Commission of Jurists.
CCN - Comisión de Conciliación Nacional; National Conciliation Commission.
CIME - Centro de Inteligencia Militar; Military Intelligence Center, which centralizes the intelligence services of the Colombian military.
CINEP- Centro de Investigación y Educación Popular; Popular Research and Education Center, a Colombian human rights group based in Santafé de Bogotá.
CODHES- Consultoría para los Derechos Humanos y el Desplazamiento; Consultancy for Human Rights and the Displaced.
CONVIVIR - Servicios de Vigilancia y Seguridad Privada; Special Vigilance and Private Security Services.
CREDHOS - Comité Regional para la defensa de los Derechos Humanos; Regional Committee for the Defense of Human Rights, a Colombian human group that covers the Middle Magdalena region and is based in Barrancabermeja, in the department of Santander.
CTI - Cuerpo Técnico de Investigación; Technical Investigation Unit, investigators who work for the attorney general’s office.
DAS - Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad; Administrative Security Department. An investigative police force that operates without uniforms and is administered by Colombia’s executive branch. All other police units are administered by the Interior Ministry.
Data Bank - the Data Bank on Political Violence (Banco de Datos de Violencia Política) is run by the Intercongregational Commission for Justice and Peace and the Popular Research and Education Center. It compiles information on human rights and international humanitarian law violations.
Defensoría - Public Advocate’s Office, the government’s public advocate, responsible for protecting the citizenry against abuses of their constitutional rights. The advocate oversees regional and local offices as well as Colombia’s corps of public defenders.
DIJIN - Dirección Nacional de Policía Judicial e Investigación; Intelligence and Judicial Investigations Bureau of the Police.
ELN- Ejército de Liberacíon Nacional; the National Liberation Army.
EPL - Ejército Popular de Liberación; Popular Liberation Army.
Esperanza - Esperanza, Paz y Libertad; Hope, Peace and Liberty party.
GAD - Grupo de Apoyo a Desplazados; Forcibly Displaced Persons Support Group.
FARC - Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia; Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, Colombia’s largest insurgency.
FMLN- Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional; Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front.
FUNPAZCOR- Fundación por la Paz de Córdoba; Foundation for the Peace of Córdoba, a civilian organization with charitable goals founded in 1991 by the family of Carlos Castaño.
ICRC - International Committee of the Red Cross.
IHL - International Humanitarian Law.
JAC - Junta de Acción Comunal; Neighborhood Action Committee.
Justice and Peace - Comisión Intercongregacional de Justicia y Paz; Intercongregational Commission for Justice and Peace.
MAS - Muerte a Secuestradores; Death to Kidnappers. MAS was formed by drug traffickers in 1981. The name was also adopted by army-organized paramilitaries in the Middle Magdalena region, some of which later allied with drug traffickers. The name is now generic and is used throughout Colombia by some paramilitary groups.
Mine Ban Treaty - Convention on the Use, Stockpiling, Production, and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and On their Destruction.
MINGA - Asociación para la Promoción Social Alternativa; Association for Alternative Social Development, Colombian human rights group. Minga is a Quechua term meaning collective work.
OAS - Organization of American States.
OIA - Organización Indígena de Antioquia; Antioquia Indigenous Organization.
personeros - municipal officials charged with receiving complaints about rights abuses from the citizenry.
polacheras - name used for girls who flirt with or date local soldiers and police officers.
Procuraduría - Internal Affairs, the government agency responsible for investigating reports of crimes by government employees and recommending administrative punishment like suspensions, fines and dismissals. Within the agency, specific divisions are responsible for investigating the abuses of various branches of government. They include the Delegate for the Armed Forces and the Delegate for the Police Forces. The Delegate for Human Rights investigates reports linking state agents to forced disappearance, torture, and massacres, defined as the killing of four or more people by the same individuals and at the same time. However, Internal Affairs can only recommend administrative, not criminal sanctions.
retenido - retained.
SIJIN - Seccional de Policía Judicial; Sectional Judicial Police.
toma/s - indiscriminate attacks, including temporary seizure of towns.
tomberas - see polacheras.
Twentieth Brigade - unit of the Colombian Army which centralized military intelligence.
UC-ELN - Unión Camilista-Ejército de Liberación Nacional; Camilista Union National Liberation Army.