Colombia

Members of the ASEINPOME community gather in solidarity, 2018. Their community had been attacked in May of that year.  Photo credit: https://corporacionclaretiana.org

On 24 April, at around 11 am an unknown individual entered the Indigenous community of ASEINPOME. The community is in the Meta Region (central Colombia). The individual set one house on fire. For the past two weeks, two high-cylinder motorcycles have been riding around the community. These two incidents followed an earlier one on 12 April when the human rights group Corporación Claretiana Norman Perez Bello reported that two unknown and armed men were present near the community. Amnesty International urges the authorities to investigate all these incidents, to identify the attackers and stop them from further threatening the Indigenous community. 

The ASEINPOME settlement has increasingly been facing security incidents since the COVID-19 quarantine started, as unknown and armed people have been observed prowling the premises. 

In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, Colombia must urgently take appropriate measures to guarantee the rights of Indigenous Peoples, including their rights to health, water and food, Amnesty International said today. These measures must be coordinated with each Indigenous community, respecting their right to autonomy.

In the context of the health emergency declared because of COVID-19 and the “State of Economic, Social and Ecological Emergency” throughout the country, President Iván Duque stated that the authorities would deliver food and money to the most vulnerable people. The Ministry of the Interior is responsible for the delivery of food to Indigenous, Black, Raizal, Palenquero, Afro-Colombian and Roma communities; Community Action Boards; community leaders; and human rights defenders.

However, three weeks after the quarantine was imposed, Indigenous communities in the departments of Casanare, Vichada and Meta informed Amnesty International that they have received no support from government authorities, despite their strict compliance with the isolation measures.

In response to the protest organized on 21 March by people deprived of their liberty in several Colombian prisons, who were calling for efficient measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19, which resulted in at least 23 deaths and 83 people being injured in Bogota’s “La Modelo” Medium Security Prison and Penitentiary, Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International, said:

“In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic that confronts us, there are growing concerns about the precarious situation of people deprived of their liberty across the Americas. In Colombia, overcrowded prisons make it impossible to isolate people who may have contracted the virus. In addition, limited access to health services and hygiene products, and the lack of constant water supplies, increase the risks of exposure to infection and affect recovery conditions.”

Isabel Zuleta via wikidata.org

Isabel Zuleta cares deeply about the Cauca River and all the life it sustains in her homeland of Colombia. 

The river used to be full of fish. It provided both food and income for many families who rely on fishing to survive. 

But that all changed when the government approved the construction of a huge dam. The dam turned a running river into a pool of still water to create electricity. 

The dam stopped fish from swimming up the river to lay their eggs and reproduce. It upset the ecology of the river which means it changed how the plants and organisms relate to the river. The dam affected all the life that depends on a running river.

Isabel joined with other people in a movement called Ríos Vivos, which is Spanish for ‘Living Rivers’. 

Together, they started speaking out against the dam. They organized rallies and campaigns to defend their right to a healthy environment.

Doing so takes courage. Leaders of Ríos Vivos have been killed. So have their relatives. 

Leyner Palacios accepting the World Prize for Pluralism, November 2017. Photo via youtube.com

Human rights defender Leyner Palacios has been vocal about the presence of illegal armed groups in the territories of Bojayá communities, western Colombia. (See UA posted December 2 and titled Colombia: Thousands in need of urgent protection.) 

On 31 December 2019, 300 members of the Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia arrived in the community of Pogue and placed it and three other communities of Bojayá under forced confinement. On 3 January 2020, the AGC threatened Leyner Palacios and gave him two hours to leave the territory of Bojayá or they would kill him. Amnesty International urges the Colombian government to take immediate action to guarantee his protection.

Please send a letter or email to the president.

Luz Marina Arteaga via Twitter

On 2 October, neighbours informed Luz Marina Arteaga, a defender for the rights of rural communities in the Meta department, in central Colombia, that her house is under continuous surveillance from two unknown men. Three days later, unknown men asked in the village for her whereabouts. 

Seven months ago, Luz Marina was forced to leave her home due to a death threat. On 16 April 2019, Luz Marina received the death threat in a phone call from the commander of the paramilitary group known as “Los Rastrojos”. On 20 April 2019, she requested protection from the National Protection Unit (UNP) but is yet to receive it. Due to the high risk of the threat and persecution for Luz Marina in her hometown, she was forced to leave. She would like to return home, but fears for her life due to the recent events. 

Please send an email or letter to the director of the National Protection Unit.

Colombia’s Constitutional Court must urgently analyze the recent sentence delivered by a local judge in Apartadó against Germán Graciano Posso, the legal representative of the San José de Apartadó Peace Community, and must above all guarantee the rights of victims of grave human rights violations, Amnesty International said today.

Germán Graciano, a renowned human rights defender, is facing charges brought by the Colombian army’s 17th Brigade. The charges were brought against him because he has denounced both nationally and internationally the presence of paramilitary groups in his community’s territory as well as the inaction of the Colombian state, which has neither investigated effectively nor taken adequate measures to protect his community.