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Writer's pictureLibertad Sublime
Sep 27, 20238 min read

The murder of leaders like Javier Gamez highlights the structural issues in La Guajira and Colombia


Agrarian leader Javier Gamez was murdered in La Guajira in December 2022. Like many murdered social leaders, his killing remains unsolved.


*Article written by Maria Gil, Gabriela Marchena & Leidys Ospina


The article will illustrate the negligence of the Colombian State in relation to different cases and situations regarding social leaders. Secondly, the article will present the case of Javier Gamez, a social leader who was murdered at the door of his house, and whose killing remains unsolved. Likewise, it will highlight the situation of social leaders around the department of La Guajira and throughout Colombia. It is important to note that the murder of social leaders in Colombia is a serious and worrisome problem, and that all state institutions and actors must work together to put an end to this violence. That is why this article will demonstrate the lack of effective actions that the Colombian State has had on the issue of social leaders. It is also important to talk about the situation of social leaders in Colombia because it is a hugely complex and concerning issue. According to reports from Colombian human rights organizations, social leaders - including human rights defenders, community organizers, Indigenous and Afro-descendant leaders, and environmental activists - face a high risk of violence, intimidation, and persecution. This article will therefore seek to provide insight into this terrible reality by focusing on the story of one such leader from La Guajira.

 Javier Gamez was an agrarian leader from La Guajira. He was also a former territorial manager of the Office of the Comptroller General of La Guajira, and legal representative of the Agroim Association (located in the corregimiento La Junta, municipality of San Juan del Cesar, department of La Guajira). He was a fundamental part of this region’s community; his work was mainly focused on the progression and development of the peasants who worked the land and cultivated “fique” (a tough natural fiber made from the leaves of the plant Furcraea andina, similar to hemp). Javier had always been interested in helping his community in different ways, which is why he was also not only the president of Asofique, a project that benefits more than 300 farmers to promote the cultivation of fique in the village of La Junta, but also a defender of the peace agreement, and an ally and friend of the reincorporation process of the signatories settled in the AETCR of Pondores (Territorial Spaces for Training and Reincorporation of former FARC guerrilla fighters). Unfortunately, Javier was assassinated on December 13th, 2022, at the door of his house at around 11:30 p.m. According to witnesses, an armed man in a white van was the one who murdered him, however, there is no certainty as to who might have been behind the murder.

Gámez became the 186th victim among the social and community leaders who lost their lives in Colombia in 2022 as reported by Indepaz, the same organization that warned about the presence of the ELN (a left-wing guerrilla organization) and the Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia (an illegal armed force which grew out of the demobilization of the right-wing AUC paramilitaries) in the department of La Guajira. After his death, the local and departmental government offered 20 million pesos for information about those responsible for Javier's death. However, there has been no progress in the investigation and there has been little major media coverage of what has happened following this proposal by the local authorities. The current government has proposed, via the National Development Plan (PND), to strengthen the investigation unit in the Attorney General of the Nation and to comply with the security guarantees contemplated in the Final Agreement with the FARC. The aim is to have reduced the number of murders of social leaders by 66% by 2026. (Marín, 2023). Although we are still waiting to gauge the effectiveness of this proposal since murders have not ceased occurring in La Guajira and across the country, the lives of many of these leaders are in danger and have been for many years and the outlook for these people has not improved.

The cases of murdered social leaders in La Guajira are an expression of the structural violence that affects the country. This has been aggravated by the internal armed conflict that has lasted for more than five decades. Despite the Peace Agreement signed in 2016 between the Colombian government and the FARC, the country continues to be one of the most dangerous to exercise the work of social leadership. As in the case of Javier Gamez, there are many cases involving social leaders who, for raising their voices or collaborating in different ways in their community or territory, are killed or threatened by different groups. Armed groups for whom it is not convenient or that it is simply bothersome that social leaders carry out such work. The situation of social leaders in La Guajira is worrisome due to the cases of violence and death that have occurred in recent years. According to INDEPAZ, from 2016 to 2020, there were 24 cases of homicides of social leaders in this department alone. An example of this is the case of the murder of the Wayuu leader Aura Esther García Peñalver, in 2022. According to the newspaper EL TIEMPO (2022):

The social leader had been receiving threats since March 15 of last year, "through phone calls and text messages, which led her to denounce and request protection measures to protect her safety and that of the Wayuu women of her community, however, this request was not met.”

Elsewhere, there is the case of Nicodemus Luna Mosquera, a union and social leader. According to the TeleSUR news agency, the crime against the leader was related to a piece of land that he had acquired in the area, in order to dedicate himself to agriculture. Luna Mosquera was a pensioner of the Ecopetrol company, where he had worked as a union leader, leading him to be one of the members of the Unión Sindical Obrera, USO. The social leader was one of the most persecuted leaders of the USO, for his work and struggle in defense of the workers and their rights. This situation is not unique to La Guajira and indeed extends to other regions of Colombia. Just like in La Guajira, in different regions of Colombia there are also many cases of violence suffered by social leaders.

The case of Javier and similar cases that have occurred in La Guajira involving social leaders are only a part of the large number of murders of leaders that occur with great frequency throughout the Caribbean region and the rest of the country. Although the Caribbean is not the most affected region in terms of murders of social leaders in the country, it is still seriously affected by this situation. According to Indepaz between 2019 and 2023 (as of April 2023) there have been 968 homicides of social leaders registered in Colombia, of which 133 correspond to the Caribbean Region (13,73% of social leaders assassinated nationwide). Córdoba is the department that has registered most cases in the region in these years, with a total of 38 murders of social leaders in that period (in 2020, it was the fifth department in the country with the most murdered leaders). On the other hand, La Guajira has registered a total of 12 murders from 2019 to the present, with 2019 being the year with the most cases in the department as reported by Indepaz. Historically, homicidal violence against social leaders has been due to armed competition for the control of territories, however, in more current cases of the region, this violence has been directed against leaders who alter or threaten to alter the social order imposed by the armed actors (Trejos, 2020). The statistics show a pattern that does not seem to be improving, and in recent years there has been little progress in terms of managing the situation of social leaders in the region. There are many people who are exposed or at risk of being killed in the Caribbean and in other regions that are marginalized in Colombia. While it is expected that the current government will propose policies that are effective and help reduce the numerous murders of these leaders, there have yet to be clear signs of progress. Even so, in the last three governments, including the government of current President Gustavo Petro, the deaths of social leaders have not decreased but rather increased, and 2022 was a record-breaking year in terms of murders of leaders, according to a report by Indepaz.

Many social leaders have died in Colombia for raising their voices in the face of the inequalities and injustices that their communities are experiencing. These denouncements made by the leaders occur in the communities most impacted by marginalization and violence. It is because of these denouncements and such activism that many leaders have died in Colombia; unwanted deaths caused by armed groups or actors from the private and political sphere. In Colombia, the abandonment of the State in the most vulnerable and marginalized areas of the country is very evident: “The absence of state institutions or their fragile presence in areas of the territory generates empty spaces of authority and rule of law, giving rise to social, political and economic marginalization, which criminal groups take advantage of” (Hurtado, M, 2019). The realities of these territories generate suffering on the part of the community not only economically but also socially. They suffer from the lack of public institutions that have the oversight of the State, to guarantee not only the legitimacy of the state but also state stability. The abandonment and absence of the State has been a catalyst for people for many years to live in deplorable situations due to the lack of resources that meet basic needs.

These communities, especially in long marginalized departments such as La Guajira, not only suffer from hunger and poverty but also from diseases due to the contamination of the water they consume, which causes the most vulnerable people in La Guajira to experience a humanitarian crisis and deaths caused by malnutrition. In addition, La Guajira has a very important geopolitical location, which has aggravated the situation not only because of the deplorable conditions in which they live but also because of the threats and deaths they face from the armed groups that govern the territory. Like Javier, many other social leaders have been assassinated not only in the territory of La Guajira but also in Colombia, in many of the marginalized areas that Colombia has. The causes of the homicides of social leaders in La Guajira and Colombia may be related to the dispute over land and natural resources, the presence of illegal armed groups, the lack of effective protection measures by the State, and impunity in cases of violence. Furthermore, the stigmatization and criminalization of social leaders by political and economic sectors interested in the exploitation of natural resources and the marginalization of the most vulnerable communities also contribute to the violence against these leaders.

To conclude, the neglect of the Colombian State towards social leaders is a serious problem that has led to the murders of far too many social leaders in the country. This article focused on the story of Javier Gamez, a social leader from La Guajira who was assassinated in December 2022. The article also highlights the situation of social leaders in La Guajira and throughout Colombia, the risks they face and the varied reasons for the murders of social leaders. We have also explored the impact of the State's neglect on the communities they represent. It is important that measures be taken to guarantee the safety and protection of social leaders in Colombia, especially in long marginalized regions like La Guajira, and that those responsible for these acts of violence be investigated and punished. In addition, the protection and prevention measures that have been implemented by the State and social and human rights organizations must be strengthened. It is necessary to make progress in the implementation of the Peace Agreement, which includes measures to protect social leaders and that resources be allocated, as well as effective policies being implemented to eradicate violence and to promote social justice in the country.

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