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Community and political activist Francisco Giacometto was brutally murdered in Santa Marta in April 2021.
The role of social leaders in a country such as Colombia is a vitally important one. A social leader according to the RAE is “a person who leads or directs a political party, social group or other collectivity” (s. f.). Nonetheless, that definition does not fulfill all the characteristics of the work that a social leader does or their importance for their communities in Colombia. A more accurate approximation reads: “A social leader is a person who defends the rights of the collective and develops an action for the common good recognized in his or her community, organization, or territory. Every social leader is considered a defender of human rights” (Editorial La República S.A.S., 2021). Taking that into account, it can be said that social leaders are people who are in positions of responsibility, and who fight for the rights of their communities or groups. This concept of perception is broadly used in Colombia since social leaders are the ones that help their communities and act or have a presence where there is an absence of the State.
Francisco Giacometto is one of the multitudes of social leaders that have been assassinated in Colombia following the signing of the peace agreement. In this essay, Francisco’s case will be explored as well as the context of violence in the department of Magdalena in addition to the objective of highlighting the importance of social leaders in Colombia.
On April 18, 2021, the inhabitants of downtown Santa Marta alerted the local authorities because the house of Francisco Giacometto was emitting a strange stench, and they had not seen him leaving it since days before. So, the police decided to enter the house and found the terrible scene of Giacometto’s beheaded body lying on the floor. Apparently, the activist had been tortured and mortal wounds had been inflicted on his neck. It was suspected that the murder had been carried out several days earlier as the body was decomposing at the time of discovery. This news caused great commotion in the city and the governor of Magdalena made a statement offering a reward of 30 million pesos (7.915 US dollars) for information that would help to clarify and find the person responsible for the crime. Through investigative work carried out by the National Police, Diego Jesús Umbría Estilda, alias ‘Flaco’, was identified in Santa Marta (Magdalena), as the possible perpetrator of the crime of the political activist. The authorities relied on a series of security camera videos to identify this person. From there, they began their search for him until they were able to apprehend him (El Tiempo, 2021). The 8th Municipal Criminal Court ordered him to be placed in prison in relation to the crime. However, Umbria Estilda, from Venezuela, did not accept these charges. On one hand, it seems like a closed case. On the other hand, it was not possible to obtain more information about the real motives of this person to murder Francisco or if he was the material actor of a plan carried out by other people. In cases of violence towards social leaders and activists in Colombia, it is not uncommon to see charges brought against the person supposedly responsible for carrying out the crimes, yet not so common to see who has ordered the killings. On occasion, these judicial conclusions raise more questions than answers. For example, in December 2019, biologists Natalia Jimenez and Rodrigo Monsalve were brutally murdered as they took off from Santa Marta to celebrate their honeymoon in the beach town of Palomino. Within days, the case was seemingly solved when three men, also hailing from Venezuela, were charged for the murder of the couple in a robbery gone wrong (El Tiempo, 2019); yet the fact that the couple showed signs of torture does not seem to align with this official explanation, nor does the speed with which the investigations were concluded. For this reason, it is essential to know more about the life and work of Francisco Giacometto in order to better understand the context of his murder.
Francisco Giacometto was an activist who understood the dangers of being stigmatized for political beliefs. According to the information portal Infobae (2021), Francisco Giacometto was a recognized student leader in Magdalena who was part of various leftist movements such as the JUCO Communist Youth, the Unes (a student unity movement) and was a co-founder, in the 1980s, of the Union Patriotica (UP), a Colombian leftist political party formed as part of an internal peace agreement process when the FARC guerrillas argued that by supporting the creation of this party they would explore the possibility of pursuing politics without weapons under the ceasefire agreements signed by government commissioner John Agudelo Ríos during the presidency of Belisario Betancur in the 1980s. However, from the very beginning, the UP, as it was commonly known, was subjected to all kinds of harassment and attacks and according to Cepeda (2006) in 1984, the first murders and forced “disappearances” targeting the party occurred. Throughout the 80s and 90s, anywhere between 3,000 and 5,000 members of the UP were massacred (El Pais), including countless elected officials and two presidential candidates. The majority of these killings were perpetrated by paramilitary groups and drug cartels, often working in collusion with state agents. These attacks effectively exterminated the UP as a political force and highlighted the danger faced by those who are identified as having alternative political leanings; those targeted were stigmatized as being an extension of the guerrilla forces rather than political activists. Unfortunately, such stigmatization continues to this day. Giacometto had moved to Santa Marta to support political activism and propaganda work in the city with the intention of “contributing to social justice and the consolidation of change” (Voz, 2021). In the same way, he always stood out for the defense of human rights, the intense desire to propagate the party’s lines, and for the dissemination of the newspaper ‘Voz’, of the communist party. According to the above, it is possible to infer that Francisco remained faithful and died defending his ideological belief. It is heartbreaking to know that this is not the first nor the last case of people who are silenced because they represent a “problem” or an obstacle for the interests of the powerful This kind of situation is constant in Colombia with over 1,200 social leaders and human rights defenders murdered since 2016 (Indepaz), and the Magdalena department is no exception with the high profile murders of leaders such as Maritza Quiroz, Wilton Orrego, Alejandro Llinas and the aforementioned Natalia Jimenez and her husband Rodrigo Monsalve all occurring in the department in the past 3 years. In these cases, it is crucial to explore the type of work and activism pursued by the victims and for this reason, it is vital to know what Francisco had been involved in.
A social leader performs different types of work depending on the different types of rights they seek to guarantee. The work of Francisco Giacometto or “Yako” as he was known to friends, was based on guaranteeing the right to youth organization and participation, principally in defense of public education and a dignified life for the youth. According to Infobae (2021), the political leader played an important role as a witness in the investigative issues surrounding the murder of Nicolas Neira at the hands of the ESMAD (this is the Colombian anti-riot squad). Neira was injured during the demonstrations of May 1, 2005, and Francisco had assisted him at the time of the clashes; it is important to mention that this murder was declared a state crime. In January 2021, after 16 years of legal processes, ESMAD agent Néstor Rodríguez Rúa was convicted as being responsible for the shooting of Nicolás, causing the wounds that led to his death. Months later, on March 26, another former ESMAD agent was convicted, retired Major Fabián Mauricio Infante. Infante had been accused of concealing the homicide and delaying the process with the intention of favoring Rodríguez Rúa. Activism related to education has been historically problematic in Colombia because many of those who confront the state and begin to have the attention of citizens are threatened or killed to silence them. Furthermore, the lack of state presence in the areas where these problems are generated is often a primary factor of these crimes (Rouille & Atencia, 2021). This is a situation which remains unchanged in current times with student leaders Lucas Villa and Esteban Mosquera being murdered in Colombia throughout 2021 (Caracol radio, 2021), in addition to those murdered and disappeared during nationwide strikes which brought hundreds of thousands onto the streets between April and June. While it is not possible to establish with certainty the link between Francisco’s activism and his violent death, given his own personal history and the painful lessons from the past, such a hypothesis cannot be overlooked. As ever in these tragic situations, it is also necessary to explore the local context where the crime took place.
On the other hand, the situation of violence that has existed in Magdalena for many years is quite complex and involves more than just education. More specifically, in Santa Marta and its surrounding areas, there exists a mix between a “tourism mafia” and a kind of local de facto government. In this case, one is referring to the paramilitary group that rules in this zone known as Los Pachencas or the Autodefensas Conquistadores de la Sierra (ACSN). They are the “owners” of this zone since the 80s; this group is seen as a legacy of Hernan Giraldo, a former paramilitary leader and a sexual predator that was extradited to the USA in 2008 for charges of drug trafficking. Los Pachencas have an organisation named Oficina Caribe and they regulate and allow the entrance of other criminals in the region. They also control tourism and impose territorial arrangements, planning and appropriating the best properties in the area and putting illegal tolls on them. This illegal group profits from the trafficking of drugs and arms, as well as taxing businesses and tourism operators in the region. They are suspected to have been responsible for the aforementioned murder of leaders in the region such as Maritza Quiroz, Wilton Orrego and Alejandro Llinas, as well as that of Natalia and Rodrigo, in spite of the robbery theory and subsequent convictions. While military operations have led to several of their leaders being either killed or arrested in recent times, the organisation remains in firm control of criminal operations in the area and along the Troncal del Caribe road which links Santa Marta to Riohacha in La Guajira. Keeping in mind their track record of violence, and the firm grip they possess over Santa Marta, it would not be a shock if this organisation played some part in the gruesome murder of Francisco Giacometto.
The history of Colombia has been very chaotic and violent, and the presence of the state is so weak in many parts of its territory that it seems impossible for some citizens to feel protected. This is where the social leaders play their roles. Social leaders in Colombia become familiar with the social, political, cultural, and economic areas of their regions even if their work is just focused on one of them, and because of their persistence and continuous labor to protect the appliance and promotion of rights, they all too frequently become a target of violence. It is hard to determine exactly who targets them but according to an article by La República (2021), there are many groups and actors who are responsible for the violence against the leaders. According to data published by the UN, between January and September of 2020 around 139 murders were committed of social leaders who lived in rural zones, particularly municipalities with illegal economies related to drugs and illegal mining and in zones where the Planes de Desarrollo con Enfoque Territorial (PDET, for their initials in Spanish are rural development plans created as part of the 2016 peace deal between the government and the FARC guerrilla) is developed, which means that such zones are a priority for the state to protect because they are at risk zones with a higher percentage of violence. In the same way according to the Fiscalia´s (public prosecutor’s office) information from 2016 to 2020 around 300 cases related to social leaders were opened but only around 100 were clarified, which is a worrying number of cases of violence. The work of social leaders in Colombia is a vital role, but also a dangerous one. Due to different reasons, and depending on their location they are threatened by armed groups such as “Los Pachencas”, “el Clan del Golfo”, the ELN, etc; groups that have presence over certain territories, making it difficult to identify the perpetrators of crimes against social leaders. It is important to point out that Santa Marta and its surrounding areas, in spite of its stunning natural and cultural beauty, bears many of the characteristics mentioned above, leaving leaders such as Francisco in a precarious position.
To conclude, it is important to point out the importance of social leaders in the territories and communities in Colombia. As highlighted above, their work gains more significance when there is a power vacuum, and they have to do the work of the State. The mass assassination of social leaders is an hugely important issue, with a high increase of cases after the signing of the peace agreement with the FARC. Yet, the government is not taking the necessary measures or does not seem to care enough. In regional terms, Magdalena is one of the most affected departments in the Caribbean area, and cases like Francisco’s are sadly common. As a student rights activist and a member of the communist party, his work was fundamental to a society of pluralistic values and visions. Unfortunately though, his case, like that of many others, is a clear example of the price that activists have to pay in Colombia for demanding the bare minimum which is the protection and guarantee of human rights. Also, what is more concerning and frustrating is the fact that justice will most probably not be served as a responsibility of the State. We as a society should be more aware of the work and importance of social leaders and their contribution to society and the country as a whole. This is why we should call upon the state to take action over the issue, and have a presence in the territories that have been most affected during the post-conflict. If we fail to act, we simply contribute to this state of indifference and impunity.
Bibliography
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