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News > Latin America

Four More Colombian Social Leaders Murdered, Justice Demanded

  • Libardo Garcia (R), a farmer who was displaced during the rebel violence and returned to grow coffee with his family. October 19, 2017

    Libardo Garcia (R), a farmer who was displaced during the rebel violence and returned to grow coffee with his family. October 19, 2017 | Photo: Reuters

Published 5 June 2018
Opinion

Social organizations in Cauca are demanding the return of the bodies of those killed, and want the government to make good on its agreement to protect social leaders.

Several human rights and farmer organizations in rural Colombia released a statement saying the four of their members have been killed and are demanding the government do something about it.

RELATED: 
Four Social Leaders, Activists Killed in Colombia in 24 Hours

In a communique released by The Cauca Social and Political Coordination (CSPMPC), National Coordinator of Coca and Marijuana Growers (COCCAM) and several other rural rights organizations, leaders of these groups say that community members of Rio Nayo - Obdulio Zamora, Hermes Zamora, Simeon Angul and later Iber Angulo were all kidnapped and were all recently found dead.

The collectives say that there is evidence that the armed group, "Strong Front Unit of the Pacific" (FFUP) is to blame for the assassinations.

The signatories also blame the Colombian government for "abandoning the areas once controlled by the FARC" the groups say are "now being taken over in a territorial war by armed groups." The collective says the administration under Manuel Santos is "not holding up the peace accords" that he and the FARC signed in 2016 in which the government promised to protect rural rights leaders from nefarious groups as the FARC disarmed.

The demobilization of the former guerrilla fighters left a void of power in many rural regions long abandoned by the Colombian government. This vacuum is being taken over by violent drug cartels and paramilitary groups that want access to small-scale farmer lands.

"We roundly denounce the forced disappearance of those assassinated," the groups said in their statement released on Tuesday. They are demanding that the government end the cycle of violence and impunity that has escalated over the past two years once protected by the FARC. The collective says they repeatedly tell government authorities of threats against their social movement members and want the government to make good on its promise to protect them and end the cycle of violence and impunity that plagues Cauca.

Prensa Rural, which published the COCCAM statement on its Twitter account says that these murders bring the total number of social leaders killed this year alone to 35, while the former FARC put the number of their previous members killed at 60 since the group’s disarmament.

More than 200 social leaders and human rights defenders have been murdered in Colombia since January 2017 to date.

The UN has heavily criticised the Colombian government for not following through enough to protect those in rural areas. 

Speaking before the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva last month Colombia’s interior minister told the committee, "The government recognizes that the signing of the peace accord is not peace in itself but a necessary and definitive step towards building a more just and equal society." Rodrigo Rivera told the council, "We are fighting against the impunity of homicides of human rights defenders." 

In their statement, the collectives said they want the FFUP to return the bodies of those killed so that their friends and families can say goodbye to them in a dignified manner.

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