Anti-Militarism: News & Updates

We are concerned that the State of Exception is weakening democratic institutions and that the criminal justice system is being used to prosecute innocent people. We are particularly disturbed about the number of human rights defenders who have been detained—some released, many not.  Media reporters have also been unjustly detained, along with environmental defenders, trade unionists, and others. According to human rights organizations in El Salvador, around 34 human rights defenders remain imprisoned.

The whereabouts of some of the detained are unknown. Sabino Antonio Ramos, age 71, began working for the city administration of Panchimalco, San Salvador Department, in 2014. As he was entering work on April 28, 2022, police detained him, although he had no criminal record. His family is unaware where he is currently detained, or whether he is still alive.

Some have died while in detention. Franklin Gabriel Izaguirre was employed at the City Hall of Soyapango, San Salvador Department, and was a member of SITMUSOY (Municipal Workers Trade Union). Detained in June 2022, he passed away while still in detention on September 29, 2023. Detained in April 2022, José Leonidas Bonilla, a union member working at the Mayor's Office of Mejicanos (a municipal zone of San Salvador), died on September 3, 2022 after suffering health complications due to lack of timely medical treatment for his high blood pressure.

We urge that the government work to end the arbitrariness of the system and expedite judicial processes for those detained. To effectively address the problem of insecurity, there must be criminal processes and sanctions that guarantee due process under the law.

The Nasa Indigenous people of northern Cauca Department have been victim to armed violence for many years. One of the primary armed actors is the Central General Staff (EMC), founded by dissident members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels who reject the 2016 peace accords.

Among the revered community leaders of La Bodega reservation is Carmen Yule Paví, age 62, whom residents affectionately called “La Mayora” (the mayor). A weaver with a profound respect for the spiritual essence of nature, she would ask plants for permission to use their leaves in fabrics. As co-founder of the Tejedoras AMA group and professor at the Intercultural Indigenous Autonomous University, she encouraged women to see the practice of weaving as a way to be more independent. Opening paths for other women, she invited them to her house to discuss violent situations they were experiencing.  

The resilient leader and Nasa Yuwe speaker had been a victim of conflict on several occasions, but it was the murder of two of her elven children (2020 and 2021) that led her to fight for the community. She was a staunch vocal opponent of the EMC; their forced recruitment of Nasa children infuriated her. She said that she preferred to die before they took more young people.

On March 16, while community residents attempted to rescue one of their neighbors who had been kidnapped (a young man), armed men fired on the community, and Carmen Yule Paví was shot in the head. She died a day later.

assassinated: two members of the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó

The farming families of the self-declared Peace Community of San José de Apartadó in the Urabá region of Antioquia Department have suffered many tragedies over the past 27 years: hundreds of murders, sexual violence, massive displacements, destruction of homes, usurpation of land, and burning of crops.

In Las Delicias, one of the farming communities that make up the Peace Community, residents have been opposing the construction of an illegal road because it is a protected zone at risk for deforestation. Road construction is likely to benefit transnational corporations; there is a container port being built nearby and a coal deposit under the community’s property that the state permitted for extraction many years ago.

On March 19, just days after Nallely Sepúlveda voiced her opposition at the mayor’s office, armed actors entered her home and shot her in the head; they also killed her young brother-in-law, Edison David, age 14. The bodies were discovered by Nallely’s three young children.

Several Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities in the Bajo San Juan River region of Buenaventura, Valle del Cauca Department, have declared themselves as Peace Facilitating Territories. Nevertheless, they are still subject to intimidation and even periods of confinement, primarily due to the presence of the Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces (AGC paramilitaries) and the National Liberation Army (ELN rebels) On February 1, armed men entered the Wounaan Indigenous Reserve by boat at Unión San Juan, intimidated community residents, and forced another boat  to take them to Puerto Pizario. There they acquired markers from some shops and proceeded to write the logo and initials of the ELN on some homes in the town.  Another boat picked them up at the pier at 1:00 pm. They fear another period of confinement (and humanitarian crisis) like the one they experienced in February 2023.