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The village of Libertad, on the outskirts of San Onofre, where indigenous leader Jaime Basilio was murdered outside his home.
The situation of social leaders in Colombia keeps getting worse as time goes by. As of September 2021 there were a reported 255 victims of massacres all over the country in what had passed of the calendar year. (Indepaz, 2021). The government does not have complete control of the territories or over the use of violence, leaving a power vacuum that makes it possible for illegal groups to claim power and be recognized by some communities as their leaders. However, there are some people that do not settle for the injustices that illegal groups provide in their communities, and when they stand up, they are recognized as social leaders. Because of this “rebellious act” against not only illegal groups but also the local and national elites, they are victims of violence and, in many cases, assassination. According to the United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner, Human Rights Defenders fight to guarantee taking actions over local, regional, national and international affairs related to the violation of rights, doing their best to secure accountability and hoping to get rid of impunity. These defenders often represent communities such as rural, Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities. This text will analyse this unacceptable wave of violence by exploring the murder of one indigenous leader in particular, Jaime Basilio.
The case of Jaime Basilio sadly adds up to the long list of social leaders that have been assassinated in the country. The 61 year old indigenous leader was murdered outside his house in San Onofre, by an unidentified assailant who fled the scene on foot after shooting dead the indigenous leader. From the information available, it is not possible to establish with certainty the motive for the crime, but given the situation regarding violence against social leaders in the country, one may infer that this was a factor. Jaime Basilio had only weeks previously been chosen as the local leader for his community, a community belonging to the Zenú indigenous line. What is clear is that indigenous leaders such as Jaime have long faced persecution for seeking the rights of their community, especially in regions such as Sucre with a long and murky association with paramilitary forces. Sucre is a department in Colombia that has been characterized by high levels of corruption in politics, as well as having a history of links between politics and paramilitarism, or as this phenomenon is known in Colombia, parapolítica. Basically what this means is that political decisions are influenced by illegal groups that sponsor those who are elected as people’s political representation. The killing of Jaime Basilio also demonstrates the ineffectiveness of Colombian institutions. According to the testimonies given, the murder took place at 8 at night, but the police did not arrive until the following morning. In fact, it was reported that the body of the indigenous leader remained slumped in a chair on the porch of his home until the police eventually arrived at 8 the following morning. This is due to the fact that state security entities such as the police are threatened by the “Plan Pistola”, an operation developed by the Clan del Golfo (an illegal group heavily involved in international drug trafficking and present in throughout the region and in many parts of Colombia) that seeks to assassinate police officers if they are encountered during certain hours in their territory. This well-known scheme has been a huge problem for the authorities. Not only because it limits their actions in the area, but also because it puts the lives of police officers at risk. It is also a clear demonstration of the state absence which characterizes so much of the country and which is a common denominator in so much of the violence towards indigenous communities and social leaders in Colombia. As we have already established, just like Jaime’s case, there is a huge number of social leaders whose families and communities do not get justice for their murders. It is difficult to access information, and this is because in Colombia, even though some people have an idea of what is really going on, most of them only get their information from national networks that usually do not share much information about this, and if they do much of the time it is biased or lacking in relevant contextual information. Unfortunately, the killing of indigenous leaders such as Jaime has become all too common in the past few years.
The human impact of the deaths in Colombia is discouraging. According to Indepaz, there have been over 1,200 social leaders and human rights defenders murdered in Colombia since the signing of the peace agreement in 2016, roughly a quarter of whom belonged to indigenous communities. There are cases of human rights violations every day, with murder being a near-daily occurrence. These crimes occur throughout the country and also throughout the Caribbean region. One example of this slaughter is the case of the former governor of Resguardo Indigena de Guadualito (North of Santander); Emiliano Trochéz. Emiliano was a teacher and an indigenous leader, who fought for the interests of his community. Emiliano was murdered on August 10th, 2018. He had received threats, which he reported to the authorities, but still, there have been no perpetrators brought to justice. Similar crimes have taken place in departments close to Sucre, where Jaime was killed, such as the department of Córdoba. But increasingly, the security situation in Sucre has been deteriorating due to the threats posed by illegal groups. One recent case of violence towards indigenous representatives took place in San Marcos, Sucre, where the Zenú indigenous community lives, and occasionally, dies with total impunity. Last year (2020), on November 8th, a massacre occurred that took the life of 5 members of the community; Arquímedes Centenaro, Luis Cochero Alba, Darwin de Hoyos Beltrán, Oscar Javier Hoyos Banquet, and Julio Hoyos Moreno (Guarnizo, 2020). The first three were specific targets of the attack while the latter two just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Thankfully, there was a survivor: the indigenous captain of the Cabildo Arawak of the Zenú ethnicity, Carlos Arturo Valerio Betún, who had also been a target but was not present in the zone at the time. These crimes remain in impunity. There are many reasons why indigenous leaders, and Afro-Colombian leaders for that matter, are among the most targeted by the wave of violence. However, there is one reason that stands out by itself. Most of the indigenous settlements and their sacred zones are fertile and as such are targeted for the production of marijuana or cocaine. This, added to the state neglect in which both Afro and indigenous communities live, creates a perfect scenario for these crimes to take place.
The situation has led to increasing scrutiny and comment from international organisations.
The presence of international human rights organizations in Colombia has gone from being a luxury to a necessity. Colombia has been characterized primarily by its mismanagement of the social leaders’ situation. There has been an indifference to the situation of violence against them. Many reports from the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights have made pronouncements regarding Colombia’s lack of competence in confronting this problem. Also, its low interest in protecting human rights. This whole problem has been exacerbated by the covid-19 pandemic. However, testimonies presented to the organization Amnesty International, show that Colombians with the quarantine could experience indirectly what the social leaders live daily. According to the testimonies given, social leaders are unable to leave their homes under almost any circumstances due to threats and attacks against them. A similar analogy to covid-19, where people are unable to leave because of constant danger outside. Adding to the fact that when they do go out, it is necessary to do so with great care. There are also the testimonies given by WOLA (Washington Office of Latin America) which show that social leaders do not only face threats and attacks; indigenous and Afro-descendant social leaders must also fight against systemic racism in institutions. The lack of security guarantees from the government and the limited competence of the prosecutor’s office also represent a challenge for social leaders. These mechanisms are necessary to protect the life and work of these people. Leaders are mostly affected by the fact that their territories become war zones, due to the lack of state presence. In Colombia, these are just some of the many problems that surround the country, which is why the influence of international organizations is important. Even though the role of international organizations in the country may not be perceived as important, they are key to the defense and guarantee of human rights. The international community is responsible for pressuring the Colombian government to implement protection and justice mechanisms for social leaders, just as the UN does. On the other hand, the organizations are in charge of publishing the testimonies and experiences of social leaders to make known internationally the dangerous situation in which these people live. Beyond this, the situation demands more action to see a decrease in violence against leaders.
Regarding suggestions for the government, there are many. However, one could start with the idea that the government needs to be more involved in politics all around the country, not only in some specific places; they need to eliminate that power vacuum that currently characterizes Colombia. It is impossible to move on and become a better country if we do not take seriously what is going on with every community that belongs to Colombian society. As was already established, social leaders represent the ideals of a large proportion of Colombian society that are currently not being listened to and taken care of in the country. It is imperative that the government should be more involved in the creation and implementation of policies that have purposes beyond economic interests, and more importantly that focus on the development and safety of minorities, in order to avoid them being left behind and abandoned. As seen with the case of Jaime Basilio, this abandonment means a leader can be assassinated in front of their own home with very little response on behalf of the authorities. Such a situation is unacceptable.
One recommendation already made to the Colombian government is to reinforce its presence in the most abandoned areas of the country, in order to guarantee the protection of human rights in these areas. However, it is also important that entities such as the prosecutor’s office strengthen their measures in order to bring justice to those leaders who have not been assassinated. The creation of programs and roundtables for dialogue with the victims is important, as it allows the government to know first hand how things are going. Finally, an entity must be created to control the cases of assassinations of social leaders within the judicial system, so that impunity does not continue to reign.
To sum up, Colombia is not a country that has been characterized over the last decades for its leadership in human rights and their guarantee, especially when the lives of social leaders are included in the discussion. The participation of international organizations is important to ensure at the very least that the conversation is started about what is really going on with the government, social leaders and illegal groups. These conversations can be helpful in eradicating future violence against those who stand up for their communities, and ensure that other leaders do not face the same tragic end as Jaime Basilio.
*Article written by Isabella Ayazo, Valentina Bonivento, and Amanda Solano.
Information sourced from:
Colombia’s social leaders are still being killed during the quarantine
Massacres and Killings of Social Leaders Impede Peace in Colombia: Second Alert
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