Colombia – Press Release on Somos Defensores report January June 2017 51 HRDs killed since the start of 2017

“WAKE UP!”

“We are happy with the peace, but they are killing us”.

The movement of human rights defenders in Colombia is on high alert because of the significant increase in the murder of social leaders since peace was signed with the FARC. The authorities are not taking strong action to protect the lives of these activists or to carry out effective investigations to identify those responsible for the killings and as a result the killings continue unabated. This wave of deaths can not only destabilise the peace process  but risks destabilising the whole country if it is not acted on right now. Figures for the period January – June 2017 below.

Watch and share our promotional video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYjJCONod14

Download the report at: https://goo.gl/1hnfKK

Between January and June 2017, the Colombian Human Rights Defenders Reporting System (SIADDHH) recorded a total of 335 individual attacks against defenders who were targeted in 225 threats, 51 murders, 32 attacks, 18 arbitrary detentions and nine cases of prosecution. The increase in attacks against human rights defenders during the first half of 2017, compared to the same period in 2016, was up by 6%, going from 314 to 335.

Of these 335 attacks, 76% of the targets were male  and 24% of the targets were female. The trend identified in our 2016 Annual Report, “Against the Ropes” regarding the increase in attacks against the life and physical integrity of defenders,  is reflected in the current pattern of homicides and attacks. Since the signing of the peace accords in September 2016 until June 2017, 82 human rights defenders have been murdered and more than 50 have been victims of attempted killings.

Killings of HRDs in general have increased increased by 31% while killings of women human rights defenders increased compared to 2016 with a total of seven in this period. The defenders most affected by this crime are community, peasant and Afro-descendant leaders in rural areas. Of particular concern is the practice of disappearance of the victims  prior to killings in several recorded cases, as well as the use of extremely brutal torture in cases such as that of José Yimer Cartagena in Córdoba who was stabbed 32 times and had his nails removed and his tongue torn out. An equally extreme case was that of Edenis Barrera in Casanare who was raped, impaled with branches and suffered multiple stab wounds in different parts of her body.

Among the alleged perpetrators of the 335 attacks reported by SIADDHH, we note that the paramilitaries are implicated with assumed responsibility in 197 cases (59%), unknown actors in 107 cases (32%), state agents in 30 cases (9%), And guerrillas in 1 case (0.1%)

In relation to the political context, the report states that despite innumerable announcements, commitments and statements by the national government and entities of the Colombian state related to the protection and prevention of aggression against human rights defenders in Colombia, the figures present a compelling picture of a very different reality. For example the Office of the Attorney General of the Nation is finally taking action but not at the pace needed to address the issue; there have been historic breakthroughs but these cannot keep pace with the volume of cases that are recorded on a daily basis.

While it is important to acknowledge that progress has been made in some cases, (cases which historically would have simply ended up in a file) it is still the case that violence against human rights defenders, while acknowledged by the state Is still far from being completely under control. It would be better if the Attorney General could use his position to produce concrete results to show who is behind this violence.

On the other hand the report points out how the issue of violence against defenders has been well and repeatedly flagged. At least 5 reports by state agencies, civil society organisations and academic institutions have identified the dangers faced by social leaders and human rights defenders. What is the government  doing with these warnings? Why are  the attacks not prevented? It is time for the government to PREVENT these killings and stop promising high-level special committees and committees for the protection of hard-working activists.

“Acúzate” (Wake Up) as this report is called, is a call not to lose hope that achieving peace ( a historic commitment of the human rights movement), in Colombia is possible but is also a call on all sides to ensure that human rights defenders don’t lose their lives in the process. This warning also refers to the forthcoming elections, since in previous years there has been evidence of higher levels of territorial violence in election periods. Hopefully, on this occasion, this trend will not be repeated.

“Agúzate” is also a strong message from Colombian civil society and the human rights movement to the entities of the Government and Colombian state to take without delay, substantive policies, aimed at generating the necessary guarantees for the exercise of social leadership and the defence of human rights. For example, to give impetus and strength to the National Security Guarantees Commission, created to design public policy related to the dismantling of paramilitarism and similar groups, or to the Attorney General’s Office to investigate in depth all cases, and not cherry pick only those that are seen as having the best chance of success.

“AGUZATE” They are killing us
The complete figures of the System of Information of violence against human rights defenders in Colombia SIADDHH for the period January-June 2017 and other periods can be consulted at www.somosdefensores.org

P.S. In September 2017 we will publish 3 special reports on the most important issues faced by defenders and how to confront them.

STOP WARS – Stop the War on Defenders (…) Coming soon.

Nidio Dávila was a member of Asociación de Trabajadores Campesinos de Nariño (Astracan) which works to protect the rights of peasant farmers and which, under Article 4 of the peace process, is active in promoting the substitution of coca production with other crops. Nidio was also part of the National Coordination of Cultivators of Coca, Poppy and Marijuana, Coccam, and the political and social movement Marcha Patriotica in Nariño.

Nidio attended the last meeting of the Association on Sunday 6 August. About 80 members of the local peasant community attended the meeting which discussed the substitution programme which Nidio actively supported.  That same day members of paramilitary group Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia (AGC) took Nidio from his house. Initially they demanded that he pay a tax but he refused. He was then taken to the neighbouring town of El Cable where he was shot dead in front of the community and his body was dumped in the river Verde. The body was recovered from the river the next day in Vereda San Rafael.

According to witnesses, the killing  was the work of paramilitary forces, members of the AGC  who wanted to intimidate the community. They believe that this killing was a way of sending a message to the community that they should not take part in, or support, the coca substitution programme. The AGC have held two meetings with peasants in the area at which, in addition to issuing threats, they said that they were there to impose a tax  on coca dealers. They also promised to raise the price of coca leaf as a way of attracting new producers into the business.

This is an area which has traditionally had extensive coca production and the community is divided between those who think that there is no alternative to cooperating with the AGC and those who support the substitution programme but do not have confidence in the ability or commitment of the government to following through on the programme by protecting the community.

Next week Colombian human rights ngo Programa Somos Defensores will launching a new report, entitled Agúzate, which documents the killing of human rights defenders in Colombia for the period January – June 2017.

The report highlights the fact that despite the peace process and despite the fact that overall levels of violence have decreased, the number of targeted killings of human rights defenders has actually increased.

The report documents the fact that since January 2017, 51 HRDs have been killed up to the end of June. This figure represents a 30% increase over the same period last year. The response of the Colombian government to date has been to maintain the position that these are isolated incidents rather than part of a consistent pattern of paramilitary activity. The basic premise of the report is that given the failure of the state to take action, the only option is for HRDs to organise to protect each other.

Somos Defensores has produced a short video to promote the report which paraphrases the words of a popular song to state – “Wake up – they’re watching us – they’re listening – they’re hunting and killing us”.

Please distribute this video as widely as possible to create awareness of the forthcoming report. Please do what you can by sending it to your media contacts and partner organisations.

At around 09.00am on the morning of 6 July, Ande Latuan was travelling by motor bike with a female companion, Alang Kaligunan, to bring sacks of corn to the local market, when five members of the right wing Alamara paramilitary group, who have been identified by the eye witness, forced them to stop. Ande Latuan said that if they were going to kill him they should spare the woman. He had just finished speaking when he was shot dead.

The gunmen then told Alang that she shouldn’t report the incident or it would be her turn to die. At that point some other members of the Lumad community, who were also on their way to market by motor bike, arrived and the killers fled. Ande was rushed to hospital but was declared dead on arrival.

It was a week before Alang could bring herself to speak of the killing to a friend who reported it to the police. It turned out that there was already a case outstanding against the five named members of the paramilitary group in Malaybalay City.

Ande Latuan was at least 30 years of age, and a member of the Pigyayungaan indigenous tribal association which has been actively seeking justice for the victims of  the Alamara, who were killed by the group because they were accused of supporting or conniving with the rebel group, the New People’s Army. Pigyayungaan has struggled for many years to protect the ancestral lands of indigenous communities against destructive investment projects that are often backed by the Alamara, who are in effect acting as security for these major investment projects.

Source La Prensa

Luis Joel was at home with his family on the evening of 12 July, when someone rang at the door.  When his sister went to see who was at the door four armed men forced their way into the house, dragged Luis Joel outside and shot him dead. Luis Joel had previously received threats and following his killing his family were told they had 48 hours to leave the area or face the consequences. Luis Joel was married with four children and they have now gone to live in an unknown location.

Thirty-five year old Luis Joel Rivera Perdomo was studying sociology in the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras (Unah). He was also a member of the Student Committee of the Faculty of Sociology and the University Student Movement. He had been an active campaigner on sexual and reproductive rights and was director of a local theatre group, Sombra Roja,  which was his great passion.

While police have tried to portray the killing as a dispute between neighbours, there is concern that the killing is linked to the ongoing crackdown on the protest movement in the university.  The movement struggles for fair and free access to education, as well as for student participation in the management of the University. Since 2014, when UNAH approved several changes in its internal norms resulting in restricted access to the right to education, the student movement has engaged in widespread peaceful protests.

On 23 June 2017, Roberto Antonio Gómez, father of student and human rights defender Andy Johan Gómez Jerónimo was killed while he was travelling to his house in La Esperanza, Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Andy Johan Gómez Jerónimo is one of the students who has been charged with trespassing and deprivation of liberty because of his involvement in the Honduran student movement.

The government of Honduras should initiate a full and independent enquiry to clarify the circumstances of the killing of Luis Joel, and other student leaders,  and bring the perpetrators to justice.

Raimundo Mota de Souza, known as Junior,  was 38 years old, married and one of a family of 10 brothers in the Quilombola (Afro-descendant) community of Jibóia in Bahia state. On the evening of 13 July, Junior was working in the fields with his brothers. He and one brother were working some distance away from the rest of his brothers and nephews when four men pulled up in a car and opened fire on Junior. He was hit 10 times while his brother had to hide in a ditch to avoid being killed. The 4 men kept firing as they drove off.

Junior was the regional coordinator of the “Movimento dos Pequenos Agricultores na Bahia” (Movement of Poor Farmers of Bahia) and had undertaken courses in community leadership and legal studies so that he could help in the struggle to legally establish  the land rights of the Quilombola community.

Following the killing of “João Bigode”, another member of the Quilombola community, in April 2016, Junior had become even more involved in the activities of the community to defend their rights. There has recently been a spate of attacks on members of the Quilombola community, none of which has been adequately investigated. On 16 July, 35 year old farmer Lindomar Fernandes Martins, was shot dead when a group of armed men burst into his home in the early hours of the morning and shot him dead. Brazil is now one of the most dangerous countries in the world in which to be a land rights defender. The government of Brazil has failed to address the scale and consistent pattern of these killings.

Source El Espectador

“186 community leaders and human rights defenders killed since January 2016”

Just one day after the Human Rights Ombudsman, Carlos Alfonso Negret, announced that 52 community leaders and human rights defenders had been killed since the start of the year, there was yet another killing in Cauca department. According to El Espectador “Ni las alertas, ni las advertencias ni las estrategias de las autoridades han servido para evitar que más líderes sociales sean asesinados en el país”, (Neither alerts, nor warnings nor official strategies have helped to prevent the killing of community leaders in the country”).

Héctor William Mina was a defender of the rights of the Afro-descendant community.  He was a member of  the Francisco Isaías Cifuentes Network of Human Rights Defenders, the Human Rights Commission of Marcha Patriotica and was also president of the Civil Defense Board of the municipality of Guachene, Cauca.

At 11.45 on the morning of 14 July, he was having breakfast in the restaurant in the public park of Caloto, when 4 men surrounded his table, two on each side, and shot him several times. According to eye witnesses, after the attack Hector ran into the interior of the restaurant where people called for help. One man took him to the central hospital on his motor bike. On arrival at the hospital it was decided that he needed to be translated to the Clínica Valle del Lili but he died from his injuries while en route.

According to the Ombudsman there have been 186 killings of community leaders and human rights defenders in Colombia since January 2016. This latest killing brings to 53 the number of such killings so far in 2017 while there have been more that 500 instances of threats. Most attacks on human rights defenders occur in the departments of Cauca, Antioquia, Norte de Santander and Córdoba.

In Brazil, the battle for land is turning increasing deadly. Half the country’s land is owned by just 1% of the population and those calling for reform often find themselves a target. The “Farmers Without Land” Movement says 61 activists were murdered last year in Brazil – up 20% in a year and the highest figure in more than a decade. The violence is centred around the north western state of Amazonas, which has seen a rapid expansion in mining, intensive farming and the lumber industry.

A programme prepared by Patrick Lovett, Jessica Sestili and Laura Burloux.

Recently the Thompson Reuters Foundation launched an extensive reportage on land conflicts with a focus on the killing of HRDs. Front Line Defenders has worked very closely with them on this project since January, and is quoted  widely across the package.

It includes one long analytical piece on land conflicts / necropolitics, 8 in depth reports on HRDs still fighting, a documentary, and an animation paying tribute to murdered HRDs, built with more than 100 photos from the HRD Memorial project.

The video tribute is playing on the massive 30-story screens in the middle of NYC’s Times Square, and outside London’s Canary Wharf tube station (the UK banking hub). We wanted to create visibility amongst staff headed to work at corporations connected to the violence, and bring the faces of defenders into major business centres.

Discover the new lawless frontiers of the 21st Century: Russia, Brazil, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Honduras, India, Kenya

#LawlessLands Posted by Place on Monday, 19 June 2017

London display: https://twitter.com/neo_chlo/status/875047749699477505

NYC display: https://twitter.com/sallyhayd/status/876547383869493250

Intro to package: http://www.thisisplace.org/i/?id=332eda58-f7c8-4d32-9fa2-48df7de25afd

Full microsite: http://www.thisisplace.org/shorthand/politics-of-death/

It has also gone out as a wire across Reuter’s network (meaning it should get picked up globally / locally) and we’ll be partnering on a film screening and panel in July for which our award finalist Nonhle will join us.

Please share the report using #LawlessLands, and encourage HRDs to do the same. Reuters will help to promote any content, cases, or stories that HRDs and NGOs share.

On the evening of the 6th July Ademir de Souza Pereira took his car down to the local car wash. He was talking to the attendant when two gunmen pulled up alongside him and shot him. He tried to run but was hit twice and fell. The killers then took the time to deliver the final shot before escaping. Ademir was a prominent member of the Liga dos Camponeses Pobres (LCP) which advocates for the rights of small farmers and landless peasants.

Ademir, his wife and three colleagues had travelled to the state capital, Porto Velho, for a meeting with a senior official of the Instituto Nacional de Colonização e Reforma Agrária (Incra) which deals with land reform. Ademiro was shot while his wife was attending the meeting. This killing has brought to eleven the number of killings of land rights activists in the state of Rondônia so far this year. Last year, in 2016, Rondônia led the killings of HRDs in Brazil with 19 killings, mostly involving rural workers or leaders who worked to defend the right to land.

According to Afonso Chagas, a volunteer with the Pastoral Land Commission Rondônia, Ademir was part of a long-standing occupation called Terra Nossa where six people have been killed in the last two years.

The next day, 07 July, Rosenildo de Almeida was leaving a local church when two men pulled up on a motor bike and shot him dead. Rosenildo was one of the leading members of the LCP, which is organising a land occupation on the hacienda of Santa Lucia in Pau d’Arco. On the 24th May 10 other members of the LCP who were taking part in the same land occupation were shot dead in Pau D’Arco in what was one of the most brutal killings to date.

These killings are part of consistent pattern of killing of land rights activists and human rights defenders in Brazil. Forty-three human rights defenders have been killed so far this year. These killings take place against a background of police and official indifference and a complete failure by the government either to prevent the killings or to bring the perpetrators to justice. Of particular concern at the moment are attempts by the government to undermine and limit the powers of FUNAI, the indigenous rights agency, which in theory protects the land rights of indigenous peoples. According to one FUNAI official, who spoke recently to  The Guardian  on condition of anonymity, “You have to be careful what you say. Those who position themselves in the defence of indigenous people are strongly attacked.”