death threats against the Fuerza de Mujeres Wayuu (Force of Wayuu Women) inLa Guajira Department.
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Colombia: News & Updates
Colombia has the world's second largest population of internally displaced persons (five million) due to the half-century internal armed conflict—the longest-running war in the Western Hemisphere (since 1964). Control for territory and popular support among the three main groups (left-wing rebel forces FARC & ELN, right-wing paramilitaries, Colombian police/military) has left 220,000 killed, 75% of them non-combatants. Since 2000, the US has exacerbated the violence by sending more than $9 billion in mostly military assistance. Colombia, which has both Pacific and Atlantic coastlines, holds strategic interest for the US for global trade and military posturing.
Learn more here.
RRN Letter
May 11, 2019
RRN Letter
April 26, 2019
continuing murders of former members of the now dissolved Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and their families. On April 14, seven-month-old Samuel David Gonzalez Pushaina was killed in the municipality of Maicao, in La Guajira Department. His father, Carlos Enrique Gonzalez, age 23, was a former FARC member. Several hooded men ambushed his family when they went from their home in Simon Trinidad, Cesar Department, to visit Samuel David’s grandmother in Maicao. The child died on the way to the hospital. His parents, also injured, are recovering.
RRN Letter
April 24, 2019
murder of trade unionist and rural peasant rights defender, Nixon Willington Valencia in San Miguel, in Putamayo Department.
RRN Letter
April 23, 2019
assassination of agricultural labor leader Policarpo Guzmán Mage, a trade unionist and human rights activist who was murdered in Argelia, in Cauca Department.
RRN Letter
April 11, 2019
Assassinations of two more social leaders: musician Edwin Andrés Grisales Galvis and indigenous leader Ebel Yonda Ramos.
RRN Letter
March 26, 2019
Argemiro López Pertuz, a rural organizer, was murdered on March 17. Armed men broke into his home in the village of La Guayacana in Tumaco municipality, Nariño Department, attacked him and his family, injuring his partner and his mother. Argemiro López Pertuz promoted the implementation of the Comprehensive National Program for the Substitution of Illicit Crops (PNIS), which was established under the peace agreement 2016. More than 30 people working on crop substitution programs have been murdered in this area since November 2016. Meanwhile, coca production is increasing.
RRN Letter
March 25, 2019
Paramilitaries forcibly displaced hundreds of families from their homes in Córdoba Department and abducted three local peasant farmers from their homes in San José de Uré. On March 22 two of those abducted, Jhon Jeimer González Vasquez and Julio César Taborda Caro, were found dead. Both men had been tortured. Authorities also expect to find the body of the third man. All had enrolled in land restitution programs for victims of forced displacement.
RRN Letter
March 22, 2019
assassination of LGBTI rights defender Liliana Holguín, age 40, and her nephew (unnamed), on February 26 as they were traveling by motorbike from Guáramo to Caucasia in the Bajo Cauca region of Antioquia Department. Persons on another motorbike approached them and fired several gunshots, killing them both.
RRN Letter
March 21, 2019
assassinations of social leaders in Puerto Asís, Putumayo Department: rural organizers Milena García and her husband, Darwin Reyes, and Doctor Zonia Rosero.
News Article
March 12, 2019
Rev. Milton Mejia, a longtime partner of the Presbyterian Church (USA), told the delegates about the community of FARC ex-combantants in Tierra Grata and their work to get water to their land. Delegates also met with neighborhood leaders in Barranquilla who are working to build up their communities and seek alternatives to violence. In addition, they met with the FARC leaders and representatives to CSIVI, the body that oversees the carrying out of the Peace Accords, as well as the UN Verification Commission in Bogotá.
