Twenty year old Fablio Armando Guanga,was a member of the Guardia Indigena (Indigenous Guard) of the Awá people on the Gran Rosario reservation in Tumaco.

He had been working on projects to help the victims of armed violence in the region.

On 23 December, 2020, a group of gunmen kidnapped him from his home in La Guayacana in Tumaco. On 27 December, it was confirmed that he had been killed.

Several days after the killing leaders of the Awá people issued a statement: “As indigenous peoples, we demand that President Iván Duque take responsibility for these actions against the Awá indigenous people as Head of State and that he accept responsibility for the lack of guarantees and care for the human rights of the communities who are simply exercising our fundamental rights.

The Colombian State must be the main guarantor of the full fulfillment of our rights and take responsibility for the omissions of the armed forces attached to its government and establish control of the territories. Our territories must be free of weapons, and we want it that way. For this reason today we demand that our human rights be guaranteed, that the public forces act under human rights standards, that the Public Ministry be present in the territories and act as a real guarantor of our rights.

We ask the guarantor organisations such as the Ombudsman’s Office and the Attorney General’s Office to fulfill their institutional role of ensuring the guarantee and respect for the constitutional rights to life, personal security, physical and psychological integrity, the honor of the peoples.’