Ebel Yonda Ramos

Source Analisis Urbano

On Wednesday, March 27, the body the indigenous leader Ebel Yonda Ramos was found with 10 bullet wounds in the rural area of ​​Puerto Rico, Caquetá, Ebel was the former governor of the Cabildo La Gaitana and had frequently denounced the repeated forced displacements which the community in Nueva Villa Vereda had had to endure during the armed conflict .

Marino Ijají, legal representative of the Association of Indigenous Cabildos T’Wala has stated that the communities of La Gaitana, of which Yonda was a prominent leader, had been victims of forced displacement by the old Farc in 2010 and had only recently returned to Villa Nueva Village because previously they had been displaced to the municipality of Puerto Rico and Florencia, capital of the department.

Ebel Yonda Ramos, indigenous governor at the time that the community was displaced in 2010, was re-elected as governor in 2016 during the Peace Process, a development that soon allowed the return of the inhabitants to the region because “the spirits had already calmed down. As a result the leader and farmers had been able to return to work in their territory only a month previously.

Legal representatives, point out that one of the hypotheses that exist for the moment about his death could have to do with his position as a land claimant, and with the complaints and demands he had made about the issue during the years in which he and his community had been displaced.

According to Marino Ijají, there is no mining activity by armed groups in the area and that the violence is more probably linked to the fact that the areas atcs as a transit corridor for illegal activities.

Despite the fact that the old FARC, have already surrendered their weapons and became a political party, Ijají points out that armed factions and criminal groups are still active in the area as well as gangs who could have been responsible for the killing.

Despite the ongoing violence the community have chosen to remain on their land Now after his death people are increasingly afraid of returning to occupy their land


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Region:Americas

Country:Colombia

Department/Province/State:Cauca

Sex1:Male

Date of Killing:27/03/2019

Type of Work:Community leader

Organisation:Cabildo La Gaitana

Sector or Type of Rights the HRD Worked On:ESC Rights

Sector Detail:Indigenous Peoples' Rights, Land Rights

More information:Front Line Defenders

1This database records an individual's chosen gender identity. If they do not self-identify as male or female they can use the option of recording other/neither or use the term NBGI (non binary gender identity).