Colombia: News & Updates

We wrote to authorities calling for justice in the assassinations of two social leaders killed last night.

Community leader Efraín Sánchez Durán was shot and killed by four armed men in the Paloca sector of Barrancabermeja, Santander Department. The hitmen fled the scene but were later captured by authorities. Efraín Sánchez Durán was the director of the Manos Amigas foundation, which serves the elderly in his community.

Also assassinated on November 25 was Oswaldo Eliecer Duglas Bula in Montería, the capital of Córdoba Department. He was a champion of various social processes, including the relocation of vendors from the South Market, a union of which he was a part.

Carlos Alberto García Sepúlveda, age 22, was traveling by bus when three individuals dressed in hoods forced him out of the bus. They murdered him just 300 meters from his house in the municipality of Tumaco, Nariño Department, where he lived with his parents and his two-year-old son.

Carlos Alberto García Sepúlveda was a leader of the Organization of Indigenous Reservations of the Awá People of the Pacific (ORIPAP). He is more than just a number, and yet he is also the 156th social leader assassinated in the course of this year, with a total of 1,376 leaders killed since the signing of the Peace Agreement in 2016.

The Wiwa are one of four Indigenous groups (along with the Arhuaco, Kogui, and Kankuamo) who reside on the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in La Guajira Department, one of the highest coastal mountain ranges on the planet, with snow-capped peaks rising from the Caribbean Sea to 5,800 meters. The Indigenous peoples believe that the mountain range is the heart of the world, where every element, object and organism from the highest peak to the stream below, forms an indispensable part of an interconnected body. Because of their spiritual beliefs that the mountains are sacred, the Wiwa have strongly denounced development and infrastructure projects in the area, including coal and gold mining, oil extraction, a coal port, hydroelectric dam, and a hotel—all of which have been carried out without their consent. Almost all of their primary forests have been wiped out. The Wiwa peoples have put forth legal challenges and, as a result, continue to receive threats.

In October, the paramilitary organization Autodefensas Conquistadoras de la Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (Self-Defense Conquistadors of the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta) began distributing pamphlets, threatening to take measures against the Wiwa, whom they describe as "ass-kissers, drinkers, womanizers," among other adjectives. They are restricting the mobility of the residents, warning that anyone who is traveling after 8 p.m. in the territory will be declared a military objective. In other words, they will be targeted for killing.

So far this year, seven journalists in Córdoba Department have received death threats. Six of the cases were registered in Montelíbano. On October 16, journalist Rafael Emiro Moreno Garavito was fatally shot by two motorcyclists in Montelíbano.  The investigative reporter was also a respected social leader in his community in Puerto Libertador municipality, Córdoba. At the time of his assassination, he was carrying out several investigations related to criminal and disciplinary complaints by his neighbors.

Rafael Moreno worked for the independent news outlet Voces de Códoba. Because he had been receiving threats for several years due to his investigative reporting, Rafael was enrolled in the national protection program (UNP).

We are urging that authorities in Colombia: (1) conduct a transparent investigation into the assassination of Rafael Emiro Moreno Garavito, determine whether the motive was connected to his professional journalism, find both the intellectual and material authors of the killing, and bring those responsible to justice, (2) provide protection for the team of journalists at Voces de Córdoba, under agreed upon conditions, and (3) clarify whether the UNP’s security mechanism had been in place on October 16 and, if not, provide the reasons why not

While driving home from his father's funeral the evening of September 10 in Barrancabermeja, gunmen intercepted union leader Sibares Lamprea Vargas and shot him several times through his car window.  Witnesses called an ambulance, but he was pronounced dead moments after arriving at the hospital.

Sibares Lamprea Vargas, age 42, was Secretary of Administrative Affairs of the Unión Sindical Obrera de la Industria del Petróleo (USO) and security guard at the Ecopetrol refinery in Barrancabermeja, Santander Department.

In addition to calling for an investigation into the material and intellectual authors of his killing, we are urging Colombian authorities to offer security measures to other USO leaders and union members.