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In a statement published on January 17, the Colombian Ombudsman’s Office denounced the murder of 145 social leaders in the country in 2021. Although the figure represents a decrease compared to the previous year, the increase in these crimes in regions such as the Valle del Cauca and Antioquia and the escalation of violence caused by illegal armed groups.
For many Colombians, peace is far from being a reality. The signing of the Peace Agreement in 2016 with the extinct FARC guerrilla gave way to a period of hope in the Latin American country. However, the creation of guerrilla dissidents, in disagreement with the process, and the government’s failure to comply with the agreement, which has led to the strengthening of other illegal armed groups, have dashed the country’s hopes of leaving violence behind.
Among the most threatened in the country by all these armed groups (which include guerrilla groups, paramilitaries and drug traffickers) are the social leaders. According to the Colombian Ombudsman, a total of 145 leaders were killed in 2021.
In a statement published on January 17, the Ombudsman emphasizes that the figure decreased by 20% compared to the 182 cases that occurred in 2020, however, the ombudsman, Carlos Camargo, assured that “the actions of the groups continue to be worrying. illegal armed”.
“We deeply regret each of the cases, due to the impact it has on the communities. We repudiate these events that occur mainly due to the criminal actions of the illegal armed groups. We cannot spare efforts in the fight against crime, much less to guarantee that the leaders can continue advancing their important work in favor of the social rule of law”, he added.
70% of murders occurred in seven regions
Colombia is a country administratively divided into departments. It has 32 plus a capital district, Bogotá. According to the Ombudsman, seven of these 32 departments accounted for 70% of the homicides of social leaders in 2021. Antioquia, in the west of the country and with its capital in Medellín, was the one that reported the most murders with a total of 24. There the increase was 12% compared to the previous year.
The department that most worries the Ombudsman is Valle del Cauca, with its capital in Cali. There were 19 homicides registered there, 47% more than the 10 in 2020. Cali was also the city with the most leaders assassinated in the entire country, with a total of 7.
And it was precisely in the capital of Valle del Cauca that this year 45 people also died in the framework of the protests against the Government, according to figures from the Institute of Studies for Development and Peace (Indepaz), more than half of the deaths throughout the country during the social outbreak documented by the institution.
According to figures reported by the Ombudsman, among the leaders killed, 120 were men and 25 women. The most attacked leaderships were those of community leaders (35), indigenous leaders (32), community leaders (18), peasant or agrarian leaders (16) and union leaders and public servants (6).
Indepaz, however, increases the total figure to 168 leaders assassinated in 25 departments of the country. In turn, in the five-year anniversary of the signing of the Peace Agreement between the government of Juan Manuel Santos and the FARC guerrillas, 48 signatories of the Agreement were also assassinated.
At least two social leaders assassinated in Colombia so far this year
So far in 2022, the murder of at least two social leaders has already been recorded. The most notorious, the one committed against a 14-year-old boy in the department of Cauca, in the west of the country.
Breiner David Cucuñame belonged to the Indigenous Guard and allegedly died in an attack by dissidents of the extinct FARC guerrilla, as denounced by the Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca (CRIC).
The human rights defender and land claimant Luz Marina Arteaga was found dead in Orocué, in the eastern department of Casanare, as reported on Monday, January 18, by the Claretian Corporation Norman Pérez Bello and the Yira Castro Legal Corporation in a statement in which They explain that the body of Arteaga, a doctor by profession, appeared on the banks of the Meta River.
Arteaga had been missing since January 12 and both corporations denounced that they had asked the National Protection Unit (UNP) to deploy measures “according to their security situation and economic condition.” According to what they affirm, he would have received death threats for leading human rights and land processes in Puerto Gaitán, in the department of Meta.
Both corporations assure that different entities directed by President Iván Duque were aware of the threats and denounce that the security measures provided to Luz Marina Arteaga were not sufficient to guarantee her right to life.
With EFE and local media
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