Afro-Descendant & Indigenous: News & Updates

Assassinations of Awa indigenous leaders Hector Ramiro García and his son, Arturo García, on December 2 in Ricaurte, Cundinamarca Department.

Increasing harassment of members of the indigenous association Central Campesina Ch’ortí Nuevo Día (CCCND) involved in environmental defense, including surveillance of CCCND Coordinator Norma Sánchez, threats to member Ubaldino García, and the murder of member Elizandro Pérez.

Recent threats to Enrique Cabezas, a leader of the collective of Afro-descendent territories in Curvaradó (Chocó Department, western Colombia), because of his work defending their ancestral territory and the right of the communities to not be involved in the armed conflict.

killing of Noel Castillo Aguilar, age 44, a member of the Committee for Defense of Indigenous Rights (CODEDI), in the community of Barra de la Cruz in the municipality of Santiago Astata, Oaxaca Department.

Threatening pamphlets against indigenous rights organizations that were found on the streets and railroad tracks in Uribia municipality in La Guajira Department.

Armed attacks by the Policia Nacional Civil (PNC) against members of the Peaceful Resistance Movement of the Ixquisis Microregion, San Mateo Ixtatán municipality, Huehuetenango Department

Attack on Rolanda de Jesús García Hernandez, an indigenous Mayan K'iche journalist working for teleSUR, an international television network, who was reporting on environmental destruction.

Attacks against indigenous leaders in Colombia, particularly in the Southwest (departments of Valle del Cauca, Cauca, Nariño). According to human rights organizations in Colombia, more than 120 social leaders have been assassinated in the first six months of 2018, 40% of them in the Southwest.

Beating, arrest, and arbitrary detention on August 14 of Edwin Choc and Martín Chub, local leaders of the Farmer’s Committee of the Highlands (CCDA). Police detained them in Cobán, Alta Verapaz Department, after they attended a meeting with government authorities that was part of the Permanent Dialogue between authorities, campesino and indigenous communities.