INSIDE THE STORM: Who was Victor Manuel Trujillo?

Victor Manuel Trujillo

Where is the government? That is the question that we usually use to condemn the murder of another social leader. Since the signing of the peace treaty in 2016, more than 700 social, political and community leaders have been killed in Colombia. A quite alarming figure due to the great escalation of these systematic attacks in the last decade (Defensoria.gov.co, 2019). This article’s purpose is to highlight Victor Trujillo’s case; a young musician and social leader who fought for his community in Montecristo, Bolívar. It is important to know about this case, because as in other cases, it did not receive enough attention in the media.

Victor Manuel Trujillo was a passionate singer known as “Victtote” and a brave and dedicated representative of his community. Sadly, he was the ninth social leader murdered in 2019. He was 20 when he was killed on January 15th of last year in Puerto Guamo, near his municipality – Montecristo, in the department of Bolivar, Colombia- after returning from three months of exile in Ecuador. Before his death, he had received a threat in April 2014 allegedly from members of the public forces because they had wanted him to lie about links between Aheramigua (the organisation he was affiliated with) and the FARC. Instead, he wanted the government to restore the peace dialogues with this guerrilla.

Behind or with each social leader, there is an organization too. “Hermandades Agroecológicas y Mineras de Guamocó” (Aheramigua) was the one which worked with Manuel. It is an organization created in 2005 as part of the defense of the territory, natural resources and rights of the peasant and mining communities of Guamocó. Those communities have been threatened by the claims of multinational companies that want to take control of their lands for exploration and exploitation of gold and other natural resources. Aheramigua has denounced that by the end of 2018, the ELN committed a series of actions that violated human rights and International Humanitarian Law in the Guamocó region such as the installation of antipersonnel mines, the forced recruitment of minors, extortion and threats against community leaders.

Victor Manuel Trujillo became known for his active participation in the agrarian strike in 2013. He became a member of the Board of Directors of Aheramigua but he decided to quit due to the serious threats he received from paramilitary groups. After that, he decided to flee to Ecuador, where he stayed for nearly 3 months. Despite this, he came back to his hometown where he was murdered. Nowadays there is not nearly enough information about him or other social leaders who do not receive enough attention for their work and who die defending human rights while we do not even know they exist. 

Another social leader that lived a similar situation was George Pérez, another defender of lands. He was part of the Asociación de Víctimas for Megaproyectos, an organization located in Ituango, Antioquia. He was shot and killed outside a cafeteria along with his nephew in Ituango, leaving behind 13 children, most of whom were underage. He was threatened several times because of the important work he did to protect the rights of the people that have been affected by the construction of Hidroituango (a major hydro-electric project in Antioquia, but the state didn’t pay any attention to his claims. The organization he used to work with denounced that members of the police force didn’t even protect the crime scene, which could have been altered.

After the demobilization of the FARC, several warnings from government institutions and social organizations show the expansion of the ELN to some of the areas formerly occupied by FARC. This process of expansion has resulted in clashes between the ELN, paramilitary groups and the EPL. (UNAL. ¿CUÁLES SON LOS PATRONES? Asesinatos de Líderes Sociales en el Post Acuerdo. 2019)

There is much speculation around the constant increase of social leaders’ murders in Colombia and here are some of the main causes:

1. There has been a quick and complex recomposition for the control of the territories that for decades were under the guerrilla’s influence.

2. The difficulties, delays and mixed signals in the implementation of the peace treaty with FARC, along with the rupture of the dialogues with ELN have created greater risks for leaders and advocates.

3. The implementation of the public policy of prevention, interinstitutional coordination and protection mechanisms for social leaders isn’t working.

4. The electoral processes also indirectly imply a threat to the integrity and the life of social leaders.

All citizens have a role in a community. Human rights activists and social leaders have an essential role in democracy, in the construction of peace and the progress of nations. Defending and protecting social leaders’ lives and human rights activists must be a transcendental matter and of importance to every sector of society. We couldn’t defend the leaders such as Victor Manuel Trujillo that have been murdered so far, but we can help the defenders who remain in the struggle.

*Article written by María Del Rio, Sofía García & Jimara Martinez

References:

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10. https://prezi.com/view/XLTQ7nXbTPRz1TPHQmfR/