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The population of La Guajira is faced with many challenges, from limited access to water and high rates of malnutrition to local corruption, large scale energy projects which have caused displacment of indigenous communities and the presence of illegal armed groups who pose threats to indigenous leaders in the desert peninsula.
*Article written by Valentina Caicedo, Isabella Guerrero, and Sebastián Rubio.
La Guajira has been historically impacted by the armed conflict in Colombia and continues to be affected by dynamics tied to both legal and illegal economies. Like many regions throughout Colombia, the department has seen a wave of violence and murders in recent years, in many cases linked to disputes over land, natural resources and drug trafficking. Social leaders in the region have been particularly vulnerable to attack, and many of them have been targeted for their activism in defense of human rights, environmental protection, and land rights. The high murder rate of social leaders in La Guajira has been attributed to illegal armed groups, including neo-paramilitaries, left-wing insurgents and drug cartels. The situation in this region is further aggravated by poverty, inequality, and the lack of infrastructure and basic State services. This text will look to explore these issues by looking at the case of Mariton Jusayu Ipana, an indigenous leader murdered in the region in 2022 as well as other related cases, and the dynamics present in the region. These cases will be looked at to allow us to understand the reality that these territories face due to armed conflict, drug trafficking, and other interests that perpetuate violence against these actors in our country.
Mariton Jusayu Ipuana was an indigenous social leader from La Guajira who worked mainly in the defense of the human rights of his community. This work involved the defense of the Wayúu indigenous community and other communities present in the area. He was part of the Nación Wayuú organization, a non-profit Non-Governmental Indigenous Organization, and was a committed defender of Human Rights. Nación Wayúu fully defends and promotes human rights, the self-government of indigenous peoples and their exercise of authority (¿Quiénes somos?, n.d). This is done with the aim of contributing to the construction of a just and equitable society from the perspective of political, economic, social, and cultural inclusion. Mariton Jusayu was killed in front of his family by armed men who, after threatening the community of Malirrou where he resided, entered his home and killed him, according to the preliminary information collected by the Institute of Studies for Development and Peace (Indepaz), a national NGO which has been registering and verifying violence against activists in Colombia (Continúa el exterminio: asesinan a líder social indígena frente a su familia en Uribia, 2022). The heinous murder of Mariton is far from being an exception.
Unfortunately, Mariton is not the only indigenous leader to have been killed in La Guajira in recent times. Nor is he the only representative of Nación Wayúu to be murdered. Aura Esther García Peñalver was murdered on March 30, 2021. This case is deeply related to the case of Mariton because she too was a Wayuu leader, traditional authority and part of the NGO Nación Wayúu, just as Mariton Jusayu was. As described by Mejía (2021), Aura Esther was a strong leader who defended and stuck up for the human rights of her population, especially the resources assigned towards children in the region, an issue of huge importance given the region is severely affected by issues of food security and access to drinking water. According to the news agency Blu Radio, 18 children died due to malnutrition in the department in the first three months of 2023. The National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC for its initials in Spanish) stated that the leader had been receiving calls and threats against her life for a long time due to the social work she carried out in the territory of Uribia, the indigenous capital of the region. This led her to seek help and protection from security agencies, but she was denied (La lideresa Wayuu Aura Esther García fue asesinada en Uribia, 2021). Just like Aura, there are many other cases that merit a closer look. For example, the case of Jose Victor Ceballos, who was a teacher and an active member of the NGO Nación Wayúu as well. He was killed in 2019, but he had been receiving threats since 2018 due to his social work (Valentina et al., 2019). Lastly, there is the case of Alexander Fonseca, who was an indigenous authority and teacher in La Guajira. Alexander was murdered in a massacre, where 2 members of his family died too (Cuarto de Hora, 2022). This is evidence of how state neglect, a power vacuum, and the lack of institutional responsibility have allowed several social leaders to lose their lives for defending human rights violations in their territories.
Such a shocking series of murders demands a careful consideration of the context in which these crimes occurred. In La Guajira there are a variety of elements, situations and actors which have different interests. For example, the shortage of food and drinking water is a complex and historical problem within the communities or "rancherías", causing the Wayúu community to cope with the worst numbers in the entire country for child death by malnutrition in 2021, highlighting their precariousness (Cruz, 2022). This issue is closely related to the corruption that affects, in addition to the nutrition of the communities, access to health services. This point can be evidenced by the fact that of the 12 governors it has had in the last 10 years, the majority have been dismissed for cases of corruption, some of these involving management of resources for the alimentation of children (Dejusticia, 2022). And this situation is aggravated by the presence of illegal armed groups due to the strategic position of the region. These armed groups (left-wing guerrillas such as the ELN or FARC dissidents and groups who developed from the demobilized AUC paramilitaries) subcontract local groups which leads to conflicts at a local level, generating selective assassinations or massacres that are not directly accredited to one particular armed group (Badillo & Trejos, 2021). Essentially, such a situation means that there are plenty of assassins available in the region for those looking to silence the voice of anyone deemed a threat or obstacle. Such a scenario allows us to make a possible connection between the murder of Mariton murder and the actions of these local groups, or whoever chooses to contract them.
To further complicate the context in La Guajira, it's a region rich in natural resources coveted by multinational companies. This means that in addition to actors such as the State and armed groups, there are also multinationals that have affected the lives of communities in the region in different ways. The establishment of the Cerrejon Coal Mine, for example, led to the displacement of the Tabaco community, leading to social upheaval and antagonizing rivalries between communities who had been displaced. Furthermore, indigenous communities blame the multinational for the deviation of the Ranchería river which has severely affected the communities water supply in addition to the pollution caused by the open-pit coal mine. Even more ominously, those activists who have taken legal action against the company and their associates have received death threats for their activism. thanks to the fact that, according to Global Legal Action Network, the mine has been linked to paramilitary groups (Devia, 2021; Quintero & Monsalve, 2022; Harrison, 2021). While the exploitation of fossil fuels has long been a source of controversy in Colombia and elsewhere, the transition to sustainable forms of energy has also caused problems for the Wayúu and other communities in La Guajira. In recent years, there has been a concerted effort to establish extensive wind farms in the department. Despite the economic progress that it could provide to the region and the country, it is important to understand the context and the real dynamics that are occurring in the region where the communities have been, at the very least, victims of displacement and harassment, in addition to deceit and "irregular" agreements as denounced by the Indepaz study center (Serrano, 2023). It seems all mega-projects in such a complex and troubled region have the potential to generate serious social impacts on the communities of the region.
In conclusion, it is undeniable that the violence caused by armed groups and drug trafficking organizations has caused the murders of numerous social leaders and traditional authorities in La Guajira (PARES, 2020). In the same way, this is still happening due to the power vacuum in these territories and the lack of commitment of the institutions to the lives of the indigenous Wayúu communities in this area. It is important to understand the complex reality in this region. Disputes over arable land and water are key to understanding this complexity. Likewise, the interaction of different armed actors, multinationals and corruption in local government causes their interests to clash, ultimately affecting the population and its social leaders. As a recommendation, it is important to design and implement an integral plan” that goes beyond the military dimension. It is necessary to create policies that allow the border municipalities of La Guajira to have access to legal economies and a strong state presence to protect the rights of the people living there (Trejos, 2020). This is the very least that the communities, and leaders such as Mariton Jusayu deserve.
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