Pedro Angucho Yunda (51) and Felipe Angucho Yunda (56) were both traditional leaders of the Misak people, in Belén de los Andaquies, Caquetá. They lived on the El Águila reservation where Pedro was also a traditional doctor.

Both men were involved in their people’s struggle to assert ownership of their ancestral lands.

At 6PM on the evening of 9 February 2020, armed men arrived at their house on the reservation and shot both men dead.

The killers had arrived in the village asking questions about the death of Samuel Culma, who had disappeared the preceding 18 January 2020, and who had subsequently been found dead.

As a result of the ongoing threats eleven families have left the area, even though they are still in the process of registering their legal title to the land.

At the time of writing Alfredo Briñez Leiton, alias Viejo Leiton, and Juaquín Marín, members of Frente 3, a dissident group of former FARC members, were in prison awaiting trial on charges of murder and extortion.

In a statement, leaders of the Movimiento de Autoridades Indigenas del Suroccidente (AISO), (Leaders of the Indigenous Movement of Southwest Colombia) said, “This murder was just another of the many expected deaths that the government cares little about. The indifference of the government and the lack of political will to fulfill the agreements made with the indigenous people on land issues, leads to situations that threaten the life of indigenous communities”.