Colombia: News & Updates

Within 24 hours, four indigenous community leaders were assassinated in two departments. In Cauca: Avelino Ipia, Héctor David Marín, and Gustavo Herrera (a regional coordinator for Colombia Humana). In Huila: Eduardo Alarcón (in Huila). Two other leaders survived assassination attempts in two other departments. In Córdoba: Aurelio Jumí Domicó (vice-president of the indigenous reservation Quebrada Cañaveral Embera Katio del San Jorge). In Sucre: Hernando Benítez (a regional representative for the Movement for Victims of State Crimes, MOVICE). We are urging that authorities in Colombia conduct an immediate and thorough investigation into the assassinations and attempted assassinations of the victims named above, publish the results and bring those responsible to justice

Two agricultural union members were assassinated within ten days of each other in Cauca Department. FENSUAGRO (Federación Nacional Sindical Unitaria Agropecuaria) members: 18-year-old Jayder Quintana (October 3) and Nelson Ramos Barrera (October 13). In addition to his membership in the agricultural union federation FENSUAGRO, Jayder Quintana also belonged to the peasant farmers association ANZORC (Asociación Nacional de Zonas de Reserva Campesina). Nelson Ramos Barrera, who was killed in front of his family, belonged to the Municipal Peasant Workers Association of Piamonte (ASIMTRACAMPIC), an affiliate of FENSUAGRO. Because of its work coordinating crop substitution programs and defending protected biodiversity zones, ASIMTRACAMPIC members have been deemed military targets by armed groups operating in the area. We are urging that authorities in Colombia: 1) carry out transparent and thorough investigations into the assassinations of Jayder Quintana and Nelson Ramos Barrera, publish the results, and bring the perpetrators to justice; 2) provide protection measures to members of ASIMTRACAMPIC and FENSUAGRO in Cauca, in strict accordance with the wishes of their local leaders; 3) demilitarize the rural areas of Cauca because of the military’s complicity in the armed violence, forced displacement, and targeting of rural social leaders

Several armed groups are competing in Nariño for control of land to grow illicit crops, illegal mining, and routes for drug trafficking. In the last four months, at least seven community members and members of the Awá Indigenous Guard have been murdered. On July 28, Fabio Alfonso Guanga García, the second Indigenous governor of the Ñambí Piedra Verde Reservation (in Barbacoas municipality), and his partner Sonia Lorena Bisbicus Ortiz were assassinated. At noon on August 11, six men shot at the truck in which Francisco Cortés Guanga and his two security bodyguards from the National Protection Unit (UNP) were riding. Francisco Cortés Guanga serves the Piguambí Palangala Reservation as human rights spokesperson with UNIPA (Unidad de Pueblos Awá). His father, Segundo Jaime Cortés Pai, governor of the same reservation, had received death threats two weeks prior. Then on August 19, three Awa Indigenous youths were killed in the remote Aguacuate community of Pialapi Pueblo Viejo Reservation (Ricaurte municipality); others are rumored to have been forcibly disappeared.

We are outraged at the killing of two Nasa Indigenous men, José Abelardo Liz Cuetia, age 34, and José Ernesto Rivera, on August 13 near Corinto in Cauca Department. The two men were shot and killed during a two-day military and police campaign to forcibly remove members of the Nasa Indigenous group from land that they claim is their ancestral territory. The security forces were deployed to fulfill an eviction order by Martha C. Velasco Guzman, mayor of Corinto, which Nasa leaders characterize as “irresponsible and without prior consult.” Legal ownership of the land is claimed by Incauca sugar refinery, a company owned by Carlos Ardila Lülle, one of the wealthiest entrepreneurs in Colombia. Nasa Indigenous men Julio Cesar Tumbo and Leónidas Perdomo were seriously injured in the attack.