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Karina Paola Cuesta Ortega was brutally murdered in March 2021.
The brutally dismembered body of young worker, social activist, and mother Karina Paola Cuesta Ortega was found in a sack in the department of Cordoba-Colombia in March 2021. While such a crime cannot fail to shock people, cases like these occur far too frequently. Based on a report by Indepaz (2021), as of February 15th, twenty-two social leaders had been killed, which means that every two days a social leader is being murdered and these cases have only increased in the country. There are many and diverse issues to which social leaders are making efforts to improve and defend within Colombia; these people are leaders who seek to advance and improve both their quality of life and their community. However, Colombia is at the top as the most dangerous country for social leaders. If you decide to be one, it may mean putting a target on your back. This is the case for many Colombians who seek progress in social, cultural, political, or environmental fields. If you decide to be part of the change, the threats and the danger are going to become part of your everyday life, even if you are advocating peacefully. This text aims to better understand this dangerous dynamic by exploring the case of Karina Paola Cuesta Ortega. To begin, it is necessary to explore the context in Córdoba.
Cordoba has the most social leader murders in the Caribbean region of Colombia. According to INDEPAZ (2020), 45 social leaders had been murdered since 2016 in Córdoba as of October 2020, making it the most dangerous department for social leaders on the Caribbean coast by an abysmal difference. Many of the cases of these murders are related to the theme of coca cultivation, either through pacts for the substitution of territories for illicit crops (agreed as part of the 2016 peace deal) and the forced eradication of lands with illicit crops. The problematic relationship between violence and coca cultivation is especially evident in the south of the department, in municipal towns such as Tierralta. Tierralta has been constantly affected by the armed conflict due to the historic presence of paramilitaries and guerrilla forces. One of the effects of the Peace Agreement has been the intense struggle that social leaders have had to endure in that territory, a struggle that has cost many of them their lives, and left many others under permanent threat, but clinging to their ideals of converting the south of Cordoba into a place of peace.
Unfortunately, on March 25th, 2021, the darkness of the conflict and the violence once again left Tierralta in dismay when they found a body inside a sack with signs of torture. According to El Heraldo (2021), the body was so mutilated that it was almost impossible to identify. This corpse was dismembered and it was the body of a woman. Hours later, the victim would be identified as Karina Paola Cuesta Ortega.
Karina’s case was violent and atrocious; her body was found inside a sack in a rural sector of the town. This young woman, 25 years old, worked as a nurse and was the mother of an 8-year-old girl. At the time of writing, the authorities in charge of the case have not determined the motive for this murder. The corpse of the young woman had gunshot wounds in addition to signs of torture. The first point of the investigation was that it had been a “feminicide”, a far too common occurrence in the country. However, in the time since her brutal murder, more information has emerged regarding Karina, and the initiatives she had been involved in with “La Corporación Red Mujeres Por La Paz De Córdoba”, which is an organisation which fights for the social and political transformation of Altosinuana women, for women’s rights, and to end gender-based violence in the community. Karina was part of this corporation and when her death was declared, they pronounced that: “Because of our condition of being women, facts have remained in impunity, embraced by silence and without the existence of conclusive results of captures and justice for them. Enough is enough! Of intolerance, injustice, impunity, and little speed and results from police, investigative and judicial entities to stop violence against women and gender violence in the municipality”. This is of vital importance because it brings to light a determining factor in the investigation to clarify the murder of Karina, where only because she was a woman, the authorities assumed that this had been the reason for the act that ended her life. This invites reflection and analysis beyond the appearance of this case. Karina was a hardworking woman, she had no problems with anyone, she studied and worked to support her family and at the same time, she was an active member of the community, where despite the difficulties she faced in her life, she did not surrender and sought progress and advancement for the place where she lived. Likewise, this young woman was a beneficiary of the PNIS, which is a program that seeks to solve the problem of illicit crops, recognizing that this problem arises from the abandonment of the State and poverty, mostly in rural areas of the country. Córdoba was one of the departments to which huge sums were designated for the families that were part of the PNIS voluntary crop substitutions. Also, she was part of the “Asociación Campesina para el Desarrollo del Alto Sinú” (Asodecas), which is a collective seeking community led development for communities which have suffered years of violence in the region caused by illegal groups. According to Indepaz (2021), Karina is one of 129 social leaders, human rights defenders, and agreement signatories murdered so far this year. Like Karina, their absence leaves a void in their families and communities.
In reference to the reaction of the community, there was indignation and discontent with the way the case was being handled. In addition to being a brutal act, it was an unexpected one since Karina had not received any threats or warnings that her life was in danger. There was a march in response to the crime and human rights organizations called for increased reporting mechanisms for cases of violence. Likewise, there were presumptions made about the young woman and the reason for her murder, with representatives of the authorities suggesting, without any apparent support, that Karina had had links with illegal organisations in the area. In relation to these unsubstantiated claims,“La Agencia De Prensa Rural” (2021) stated: “We reject the declarations of the governor of the department of Córdoba, Orlando Benites Mora, in which he states that Karina was part of the Gaitanista self-defense groups. This fact re-victimizes the family and increases the risk of continuing to suffer violent acts. We demand that he rectify his words and clarify to the public that Karina was not part of any armed group”. Also, William Cuesta Polo, Karina’s father, rejected the fact that one of the hypotheses that the authorities suggested about his daughter’s crime is that she had had some kind of romantic relationship with members of criminal structures” (La Razón, 2021). This shows how the narrative of what happened is biased by the media and regional interests, where Karina is portrayed as a woman who was part of illicit things and that this was the reason for her death, instead of a working woman who fought for the welfare of her home. Such stigmatization for the victim of a brutal murder is a sadly all too common when it comes crimes such as these.
Learning about Karina’s case and researching information about similar or nearby cases is truly devastating. Even more outrageous is that these cases are not something irregular or surprising, because these crimes targeting social leaders are committed so regularly in Colombia. Furthermore, these crimes tend to occur especially in rural areas, such as the south of Córdoba, where there is a power vacuum that allows illegal groups to take control and act as the all powerful agent in these territories. In conclusion, it is our duty as Colombians to demand that Karina’s case does not go unpunished and that the cases of the other leaders murdered also be investigated, explained and adjudicated, because if those leaders, who want a future of peace for Colombia are left alone, no one will come to save them and our country will suffer.
*Article researched and written by Daren Diaz & Victoria Tapia.
The information was sourced from the following sites:
https://larazon.co/cordoba/reclamamos-justicia-red-mujeres-por-la-paz-sobre-crimen-de-karina-cuesta/
LÍDERES SOCIALES, DEFENSORES DE DD.HH Y FIRMANTES DE ACUERDO ASESINADOS EN 2021
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