Colombia

Enrique Cabezas in 2014  Photo via https://bit.ly/2CcyJEW

Enrique Cabezas, leader of the collective of Afro-descendent territory in Curvaradó (Chocó department, western Colombia), has received several threats in response to his work defending the ancestral territory and the right of the communities to not to be involved in the armed conflict.

The Embera, Wounaan and Zenú Indigenous Peoples of the department of Chocó have begun a peaceful demonstration in Bogotá, called the Minga* for Life (Minga por la Vida), to demand a high-level roundtable discussion with the national government. In light of their demands, the Colombian authorities must guarantee their right to peaceful protest and undertake to comply fully with the Peace Agreement signed two years ago, Amnesty International said today.

“The Indigenous Peoples of Chocó have historically borne the brunt of the brutal violence of the armed conflict in Colombia and, today, this violence has intensified with the reorganization of armed groups, such as the National Liberation Army (Ejército de Liberación Nacional, ELN) and paramilitary groups, in their ancestral territories. Every day, thousands of people and communities are being forcibly displaced; the government of President Duque must take decisive measures and immediate action to protect them,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas Director at Amnesty International.

Protests against the hydroelectric project in May. Photo credit: https://peoplesdispatch.org/

On 22 September, two relatives of members of the Rios Vivos Movement were killed in Antioquia, Colombia. These killings come after several other killings of environmental human rights defenders. All are members of the same movement, and all are affected by the environmental and human rights impact of the Hidrohituango dam construction.

On 22 September, unidentified men shot to death the nephew of Rubén Areiza, a member of the Rios Vivos Movement (Movimiento Ríos Vivos Antioquia, MRVA). He was returning from a sport event in the Briceño municipality, Antioquia department, northwest Colombia. Another man was injured in the attack. On the same day, the son of a former member of MRVA was killed with a sharp object in the Valdivia municipality, also in Antioquia.

In response to reports indicating that some 3,600 Indigenous people from 14 communities find themselves trapped in the middle of clashes between armed groups in the department of Chocó, in northwestern Colombia, which could lead to mass displacement, Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas Director at Amnesty International, said:

“This is not the first mass forced displacement in Colombia this year which has specifically affected Indigenous Peoples and Afro-descendant communities in Chocó. This is a crime under international law and one of the most serious human rights violations in the context of the armed conflict still taking place in the region”.

“Food shortages, lack of access to basic services and the escalation of the violence leave the affected communities in a state of vulnerability with an unacceptable lack of protection. The national, departmental and municipal authorities must take immediate and comprehensive action to guarantee their human rights in the face of this situation”.

Seven bodies, all male, were found piled on a road of the municipality of Argelia, in the southwest region of Cauca, Colombia. The bodies are being identified by authorities as they were presumably not from the municipality. In the past few weeks, paramilitary groups have been circulating pamphlets threatening to kill certain groups of people. 

In the early morning of 3 July, the inhabitants of the rural area of the municipality of Argelia, Cauca in the south-western region of Colombia, found seven bodies on a road connecting the villages of La Belleza and Sinaí. The bodies were reported to have been shot at point blank range with visible signs of torture and other ill-treatment. On 5 July, the authorities were able to identify six of the seven bodies, two of which were registered ex-combatants from the demobilized guerrilla group FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia). 

The new government of president elect Iván Duque, who is due to take up office on 7 August, has an obligation to guarantee the rights of the more than eight million victims of the armed conflict in Colombia and to adopt an agenda of full respect for human rights, including for human rights defenders and historically excluded communities, stated Amnesty International today.

“Violence continues to be a reality for thousands of people and communities. We are worried that armed actors, such as paramilitary groups, are still committing crimes under international law, including collective forced displacement, sexual violence against women and girls, and targeted killings of human rights activists. This has to change and we hope that the new administration under president elect Iván Duque will be committed to that change”, said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas Director at Amnesty International.

One of the bullets shot at the house of Indigenous teacher and community leader Gonzalo Hilamo Mesa Photo credit www.onic.org.co 

More than 200 Indigenous Nasa Embera Chamí from La Delfina reservation in Buenaventura (West), Colombia, are currently displaced following an armed attack on a member of their community on 8 June. They are in need of decisive security measures to protect them and access to humanitarian aid such as food, health services and shelter.

In the early morning of June 8, 2018, the Indigenous teacher and community leader Gonzalo Hilamo Mesa suffered an armed attack in his home with two bullets fired against his residence by unknown men.  Mr. Mesa was unharmed, however this recent attack generated fear and terror among the community who moved en masse from the area and are currently stationed and confined in a nearby school called Technical-Husbandry Educational Institution (Institución Educativa Técnico Agropecuaria, NACHASIN).