Dear Sirs:
We are concerned for the safety of Indigenous community members and leaders in Cauca Department, especially in light of a recent assassination and attempted assassination.
Eywar Yamid Morán Campo was a member of the Nasa Indigenous Territory of Sa'th Tama Kiwe in Caldono, Cauca Department. As a former FARC combatant and signatory to the 2016 Peace Accords, the young man was enrolled in the government’s reincorporation process (ETCR, Territorial Spaces for Training and Reincorporation) at the Pueblo Nuevo reservation. On February 10, while he was traveling with another ex-combatant on a motorcycle, returning from a job training program in Palmira, Valle del Cauca Department, they were approached by two men on another motorcycle. The aggressors shot at them. The companion managed to flee, but Eywar Yamid Morán Campo was killed.
Giovanni Collazos Coque is the local coordinator of the Indigenous Guard of the Indigenous Council of Paletará (Kokonuko People) in Popayán, Cauca Department. At approximately 11:30pm on February 25, he was at a family gathering at his house in the El Molino sector of the Mirador district of Popayán. When he went outside, four unknown subjects on two motorcycles approached the house. They shot at him, causing a wound in one of his upper arms. His family members immediately rushed to his aid.
The Zonal Council of the Kokonuko People and its nine Traditional Indigenous Authorities of the Ancestral Territories are also denouncing other death threats and an armed attack by unknown men that the Indigenous Guard suffered on February 2 at 6:30pm at kilometer 58 when they were carrying out territorial control exercises on the road that leads from Paletará to Huila Department. The Kokonuko People are recognized as collective victims and protected by ruling T-025 of 2004 issued by the Constitutional Court “Safeguard Plan of Auto 004.”
We urge that the government of Colombia:
- investigate the assassination of Eywar Yamid Morán Campo and the attempted assassination of Giovanni Collazos Coque, publish the results, and bring those responsible to justice
- implement a protection route for the Paletará Indigenous Reservation, in consultation with community members and leaders
Sincerely,
Brian J. Stefan Szittai Christine L. Stonebraker-Martínez
Co-Coordinators
copies:
Luis Fernando Velasco Chaves, Minister of Interior ~ via email
Luis Gilberto Murillo Urrutia, Ambassador of Colombia to the US ~ via email, US mail
José Luis Caballero Ochoa, Rapporteur for Colombia , Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) ~ via email, US mail
Arif Bulkan, Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) ~ via email, US mail
UN: Juliette De Rivero, Representative in Colombia of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights ~ via email
US Embassy: Francisco Palmieri (Chargé d’Affaires, ad interim); Adam Levy (human rights) ~ via email
US State Department: Desk Officer for Colombia ~ via email
US Senators from Ohio: Brown & Vance ~ via email
US Representatives from Ohio: Beatty, Brown, Jordan, Joyce, Kaptur, Latta, Miller, Sykes ~ via email
