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Ofenix de Jesús Concha and Luis Alberto Ramos Bertel were representatives of rural communities that have traditionally been reliant on illicit crops.
*Article written by Susana Rengifo, Maria Carolina Sierra & Sebastian Soler
Córdoba is a department located in northwestern Colombia, on the shores of the Caribbean Sea, and is one of the departments that make up this Caribbean region. It is divided into 28 municipalities and its capital is the city of Montería. The main economic source of this department is livestock, but agriculture also plays an influential role. Córdoba tends to be one of the most violent departments in the Caribbean region. Historically, it has been one of the municipalities with the highest uninterrupted presence of armed groups since 1949, before becoming a department. This region has a significant opportunity for wealth due to the fertility of its soils and its strategic location between two gulfs and proximity to the border with Panama. However, these factors are also very beneficial for illegal armed groups to establish themselves here. They can take advantage of the fertile soil to grow illicit crops and the strategic location to export illicit drugs. In addition to this, it is an even more vulnerable territory due to the lack of state presence. It has been a department left aside in development issues; there have been very few state initiatives to reduce poverty and inequality in the territory, so its inhabitants have been practically left to their own devices to deal with inequality, poverty, and violence, and many of the social initiatives proposed by the population and leaders have been directly affected and coerced by these illegal actors. The humanitarian consequences of armed violence in the department of Córdoba are persistent and seem to have no solution. As the number of victims of violence has risen in recent years, the risks and gaps in the implementation of rights and guarantees to the civilian population by the authorities in charge have also increased. In the south of the department, the vulnerability of the population is even greater, since the initial problems of this territory, such as health, water, hygiene, and food security, among others, have been aggravated by the increase in violence in the territory. Furthermore, in the south of this department, there are still illicit drug crops. This is a factor that has contributed to the armed confrontations impacting the civilian population there. At present, threats and constant murders of social leaders and politicians are among the most pressing problems afflicting the territory. Social leaders have been defined by the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE by their initials in Spanish) as “someone who leads or conducts a political party, social group, or other collective”. But their work reaches beyond that definition; social leaders serve as defenders of their territory, asking for respect and justice for the community they represent. Moreover, they are a direct connection between the government and the community in need, which helps the people to access different types of resources that they need. A neglected department such as Córdoba relies heavily on the actions of its social leaders to develop. However, social leaders in Córdoba, as in many other parts of Colombia, frequently face threats and violence for their work.
Between the signing of a peace agreement with the FARC guerrillas in 2016 and the end of April 2023, in Córdoba 62 social leaders have been murdered (Indepaz) due to the climate of violence, and numerous threats have been received. Such levels of violence have led to urgent calls for support from those on the ground, especially in conflicted sub-regions such as the south of Córdoba: “We have not felt any support from the government to improve the public order situation and to clarify the crimes” said José David Ortega, director of the Association of Peasants of the South of Córdoba. Leading social leaders have been victims of these murders, leaving a big vacuum in the department. Social leaders are the ones brave enough to stand up for the rights of the community; furthermore, they are the ones that lead actions and movements for the greater good and the correction of injustices in the territory. The death of any social leader means the voice of the community is lost. In other words, there would be no one fighting for justice in that territory, causing fear in the people. Additionally, the public discontent over the deaths is growing, owing to the failures of political leaders to bring justice to the injustices present in the territory. In order to better understand this worrying dynamic, it is worth looking into some of the individual cases to understand the importance of each leader to the community.
Jose Gregorio Luguez was assassinated on July 2nd, 2021, in La Chica Córdoba. His murder was associated with his work in the program and the redistribution of crops. Luguez was a single father of three and with him passing, the future of his children is uncertain. Moreover, Luguez was part of the Junta de Accion Comunal of La Chica, in Córdoba. The Junta de Accion Comunal , or JAC, helps the community by being the instrument that helps to build participatory democracy in the management of community development. It is a space for citizen participation, made up of representatives of the local government and five residents of the municipality. In a region such as the south of Córdoba, where many rural communities have long relied on the stable economy of coca cultivation, many JACs are responsible for organizing the programs to help these communities transition to solely legal forms of agriculture. Due to the previously mentioned problem of drug-trafficking, the National Illicit Crop Replacement Program (Programa Nacional Integral de Sustitución de Cultivos Ilícitos, PNIS) was implemented. The PNIS is a crop substitution program agreed upon as part of the 2016 peace agreement (between the Colombian government and the FARC guerrillas) with the aim of promoting the voluntary substitution of illicit crops. It is achieved by implementing programs and projects aimed at overcoming the conditions of poverty and marginalization of families that depend on subsistence crops. PNIS was created as a way of helping families in places like the south of Cordoba move away from growing illegal crops. However, it is striking how the authorities seem to have left the leaders of this program in abandonment. On the one hand, the authorities are not keeping their part of the agreement. On the other hand, the criminal groups are targeting the leaders in charge since they no longer grow these crops, and this is seen as damaging for the financial interests of the illegal groups. Since September 2017, there have been numerous attacks and intimidation against the voluntary substitution program for illicit crops and its leaders. The Gulf clan, among other groups, have been the perpetrators of such actions, according to El Espectador. Such a situation means that cases like Jose Gregorio’s are far too common.
Sadly, as mentioned above, José Gregorio Luguez is far from being the only victim of such violence in Córdoba. One month after the killing of José Gregorio, in August 2021, Ofenix de Jesús Concha was killed and with him, it summed up to a total of 108 social leaders who were killed during 2021, according to Indepaz. The death of Ofenix was not only sad, but it created anger in the territory, because of the large number of deaths with the same modus operandi. These deaths have remained unsolved. Ofenix was also a member of the JAC (Community Action Board), in his case in the town of Río Sucio, a rural area of the municipality of Puerto Libertador in Córdoba. Besides the JAC participation, Concha was recognized for leading agricultural projects in the locality and, like Jose Gregorio, being a beneficiary of the PNIS crop substitution program. As with the case of José Gregorio, it is difficult to ignore the fact that involvement in these programs was a factor in his murder. As mentioned above, these crop substitution programs were established as part of the 2016 peace deal with the FARC. They were established to improve rural development and steer communities away from activities that involve contact with illegal organizations. However, while the FARC may no longer be present in the south of Córdoba, other illegal groups such as the Clan del Golfo, the Caparros, and FARC dissidents are. These groups rely heavily on the drug trade. Therefore, these groups see the substitution plan as a threat to their interests. It seems like this is a huge factor in violence against leaders in the south of the department. That violence continues.
Like Jose Gregorio and Ofenix, Luis Alberto Ramos Bertel was an influential figure in the department, but, just like both of those leaders, Luis Alberto was also killed; stabbed to death not far from his home. Luis Alberto was president of the JAC of the village of San Antonio, in the rural area of Montelíbano, and he was invested in creating job opportunities for the communities where they can develop their capacities and, in that way, get out of poverty in a legal and more beneficial way. Unlike other social leaders, he had received no death threats. Even though it is imprudent to assume that his death was due to the work he played as a social leader, it seems the only reason that makes sense. People in the territory believe that the activities that these social leaders led could be related to why they were murdered. Equally, it is believed that the perpetrators of such crimes are the organized narco-paramilitary armed group that operates in the area, the Clan del Golfo. In addition to their antagonism towards crop substitution, groups such as these are inherently suspicious of any activity which brings state attention to the sub-regions where they hold control, as attention and opportunities are incompatible with the conditions that allow their activities to flourish without interference. Not only that but a lot of social leaders in this department have been killed in areas such as Tierralta, Montelíbano, Puerto Libertador and San José de Uré. As a response, the Colombian Police have now established an alarm in case of an emergency situation. However, it is worth noting that the police too have been victims of these illegal groups; 12 policemen have been murdered as a result of criminal organizations that not only attack innocent civilians but also continue to terrorize social leaders throughout the entire department.
As can be seen from the tragic stories shared above, Córdoba is one of the most affected departments in Colombia. This is because of illegal crops, armed groups, demobilization, and strategic drug routes among other factors. Encountering and investigating such cases in such a violent context is sadly all too predictable due to the low presence of the state and low response from the Colombian government. It is also demoralizing since people who are helping the country and those in need are getting killed. Most of the Colombian population will neither hear about the cases nor help the communities affected by armed groups across the country. Keeping in mind all that has been said, Córdoba accounts for only 62 of the more than 1,400 leaders that have been killed by armed groups throughout Colombia between 2016 and April 2023 according to Indepaz. It is by far the most violent department for social leaders in the Caribbean region. Since 2016 the number of cases has increased due to the various illegal military forces that are claiming territory to fill the power vacuum left by demobilized FARC troops following the peace treaty with the Colombian government. It is a sad irony that many of these victims should be benefiting from programs that were created as part of that agreement instead of being persecuted for trying to build a more hopeful future. We recommend further research on why social leaders are being killed in Colombia and connecting this with the root problems that have affected the country for the last 70-plus years and getting the word out to the public, so mass attention is brought to these people in need. Finally, the Colombian government must expand its state presence into the regions affected by the killings of social leaders in order to provide support and opportunities for the communities and to act and punish those responsible for the violence.
*Information sourced from:
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