Manuel Gregorio: A brief history of a tragedy in the south of Córdoba

Manuel Gregorio

Imagine yourself in a pretty beautiful landscape; with vegetation, hills, and fresh air, but without any source of income except for growing crops and selling the produce. However, there’s a problem: you grow illegal crops, like coca, or poppy. The thing is, you, as an individual, have to sell these types of crops, or else, you would struggle to make ends meet. Additionally, you have to sell them to illegal armed groups. You don’t have much of a hope, do you? Now, imagine after a long time, the state, which has always been absent in all but name, comes and tells you that you can change this situation, that the State would help you transition to legal crops, to help sustain your family through legality. Sounds great right? What could possibly go wrong? Well, those illegal armed groups are not happy with this, so you are threatened, bullied, and harassed, in order to maintain the status quo which favors those illegal interests. Your life’s on the line now. What would you do?

Well, in general terms, such a situation illustrates the reality which Manuel Gregorio Gonzáles Segura, a social leader from the south of Córdoba, had to endure for a long time. The region where he lived, like many others throughout Colombia, has long been ignored by the state. More specifically, he lived in rural Montelíbano, in the village of Unidas. Manuel was an active member of several “campesino” associations which tried to claim rights for the people who have worked the land for many years in this region. He was part of the South Córdoba Campesino Association (ACSUCOR), which is part of the National Association of Campesino Reserve Zones (ANZORC). He was also a member of the National Coordinator of Coca, Poppy and Marijuana (COCCAM in Spanish), and was also a beneficiary from the government’s Integral National Plan of Substitution of Illegal Crops. So, as you can see, these roles in various organizations in the agrarian field of the region made Manuel an especially active member; a recognized individual fighting through legal means towards a better life for the “campesinos” in his local ambit. Also, he was coordinating the transition towards the usage of legal crops, within the context of the implementation of the peace agreement, which was signed by the government of Juan Manuel Santos and the FARC guerrilla organization in 2016. But to his dismay, the general zone where Manuel Gregorio carried out his social work has been historically affected by the presence of a number of paramilitary and illegal groups because of its geographically strategic position, and also because of the power vacuum left by the FARC after the peace process which caused the increased presence of these groups in the area to impose their power over the others. Consequently, the work made by Manuel Gregorio caused discomfort for illegal and paramilitary groups in the zone, groups who are reliant on drug trafficking, because it meant a risk towards their business. This would lead towards the tragedy that happened on June 26th of 2019.

The killing happened near the town of Montelíbano in the department of Córdoba

On the day of his death, June 26th 2019, Manuel Gregorio left his home in the village of Unidas, towards the town of Montelíbano to buy groceries for his family. Some hours later, a suspected paramilitary member arrived with the horse on which Manuel had been riding, with all of the food the social leader had bought in the town. This suggests that he was returning from his journey to Montelíbano when the tragedy happened. It is reported he was forcefully retained by suspected members of the Gaitan Self-Defenses of Colombia (Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia, and also known as the Clan del Golfo), a well-known paramilitary and criminal group that has a presence in this areas of South Córdoba. Manuel was then tortured and finally, he was shot several times, killing him on the spot. His body was found the next day by the community. The day they killed Manuel Gregorio González, there was no immediate police presence. The search for the body was carried out by members of the Association of Farmers of the South of Córdoba (Ascsucor); the association to which the murdered leader belonged. The police arrived twelve hours later at the scene, but the population did not allow their entry. By this time, the lifeless body of Manuel Gregorio had already been prepared for burial by the same community, who, in the face of the outrage caused by the murder, decided to take the body to the house where Manuel had lived with his children. And so another family were left without a father, another community without a leader.

Manuel Gregorio, and how he was found by members of his community.

Manuel’s was another death foretold. The Ombudsman’s Office, in its early warning 083-18, denounced that there are areas in the south of Córdoba where there are imminent risks for peasants because of the growing conflicts between “paras” and FARC dissidents. The Ombudsman stated the following: “This context of growing hostility among illegal armed groups tends to aggravate the risks for social, ethnic, community leaders, of Community Action Boards and human rights defenders who try to administer justice, claim rights and contribute to the implementation of points 1 and 4 of the Peace Agreement ”. Unfortunately, for Manuel and many others throughout the region and the country, these warnings were not heeded by the authorities.

Precisely, this last topic has a vital importance in analyzing this terrible deed. Indeed, the big question still remains: how do acts like these affect the big picture regarding the implementation of the peace process? Of course the direct consequences of this heinous event is that it further strains the already tense situation between the ex coca farmers and the government due to the constant threats and assassinations carried out by the paramilitary groups in the area, groups who do not agree with the newly found program for substitution of illicit crops. The national government and the Commission of Peace of Congress claim they are ready to take serious action regarding this topic. For example, Paloma Valencia, a Senator of the ruling party Centro Democratico, has stated that the government needs to take swift action to stop these threats and killings from happening. There is a very tense ambiance in the area and the people of these marginalized regions such as the south of Córdoba are fed up and furious that the government is not giving enough protection to the farmers who are part of the Replacement Crops program and they are of course very worried that Gregorio´s case will repeat itself in the near future. However, for now we can only wait and see how the situation develops. This type of situation of course isn’t isolated. Several cases of various social leaders that have been killed previously have the same trends and patterns. First of all, their work is focused in a far away community, where the power of the State is absent. They are in many cases associated with community or people’s associations. Also, they try to empower the impoverished or disadvantaged communities to gain their legitimate rights. With these actions, they actively or passively challenge the people that have always had power and presence in the zone, legal ones such as traditional families with political power, or illegal ones such as paramilitary groups or guerrilla groups. Social leaders then begin to receive death threats which aim to maintain things as they were, to not change anything. Early alerts are sent to the government, but that makes almost no difference. In the end, they are frequently killed (anywhere between 285 and 765 since depending on the source of information and definition of social leader), because of the lack of action by the State, and the impunity of the posterior legal process, which seems to loom over the assassination of every social leader.

The peasants of the South of Córdoba are trapped now more than ever. On the one hand, there is the power vacuum that the Farc left that is being filled by bullets from other groups outside the law. On the other hand there is the impossibility of cultivating something other than coca which would offer a steady living. Finally, there is the lost hope of being able to be free from a conflict that they have lived for generations, one which had been promised to end, but which for leaders like Manuel, has worsened. Within the South Córdoba Campesino Association (Ascsucor in Spanish), Manuel carried the hope of bringing the dream of a better life to his people. His contribution to peace, in addition to his life, was to believe that the voluntary substitution of illegal crops was the most beneficial tool to achieve a transition to a new life.

Among other things, the implementation of the peace agreement in the south of Córdoba is of relevant importance to the agreement itself, but also for the benefits that that process can give to those farmers. Between the peasant communities and the government of president Iván Duque, the tension grows over what these threatened rural communities see as a betrayal of what was promised by the substitution program. The protection of these social leaders is of vital importance to the agreement and indeed for the advancement of democracy in Colombia. One thing cannot be separated from the other; without protection for them, the voluntary eradication of crops contemplated by the program is almost impossible, because two or three farmers are dying for every eradicated hectare. In this case, if the situation continues like this, the farmers in these areas will be extinguished before the coca cultivations are.

The presence of paramilitary groups in this area is a worrying sign for the government and for society. We have been told time and time again that the “paras” are extinct, but this, like other lies that are repeated to us daily, are mere stories that are told in the big cities. However, in the forgotten regions of Colombia, such as the south of Córdoba, the presence of neo-paramilitary structures is so real that Manuel Gregorio is just one of so many similar cases throughout the country.

*Article by Andrés Salinas, Mauricio Sierra, Amy Torres & Juan David Vargas