The need to stand up for our leaders: the case of Aura Esther Garcia Peñalver.

Aura Esther Garcia Peñalver

In a world where people’s rights are continuously violated and the state does not respond, it is necessary to have people who peacefully promote and protect the universality and indivisibility of the rights of peoples and individuals (Amnesty, n.d.).

These people are called human rights defenders, and they aim to ensure that the rights that are being violated will be respected.

This article will explore the case of one such defender, Aura Esther García Peñalver; a social leader who was murdered in 2021. This is not a new issue or event in Colombia; unfortunately it is a reality that hundreds of social leaders are threatened and many of them murdered for defending their communities and territories, a situation that should be unthinkable because they are the ones who are in charge of filling the vacuum left by the central government. The role of a social leader in Colombia is very important, especially for marginalized and indigenous communities, but even though they fight for equality and valid human rights, they find themselves in contexts of corruption, where the groups outside the law which do whatever is necessary to continue maintaining the power that the state leaves behind. All these characteristics were experienced by Aura who was a social leader that defended the indigenous communities of La Guajira; this social leader experienced situations of high corruption in her territory where she had to face situations of discrimination and even great challenges. This text will explore the issue of violence against human rights defenders, share the story of Aura Esther Garcia Peñalver, and demonstrate what this story tells us about this current situation in Colombia.

Human rights and social leaders

According to the UN High Commissioner’s Office for Human Rights (OHCHR, n.d.), defenders use lobbying strategies to draw the attention of the public, politicians and judicial officials in order to take into account their work and address human rights violations. In effect, defenders address any human rights issue; from employment issues and rights to life to individual category rights such as indigenous or women’s rights (OHCHR, n.d.). Likewise, the existence of these defenders includes social leaders, which according to the Center for Social Leadership (2013), is a responsibility which “means dedicating one’s life and talents to improving society regardless of social position, wealth or privilege. Social leaders serve and bless others“. In other words, regardless of their status, they are people who are dedicated to promoting an exemplary society and to this end they focus on encouraging the government to fulfill its obligations, especially those related to human rights. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (2019) argues that these leaders play a fundamental role within their communities because they act as mediators between the State and the people who want their voices to be heard and their needs to be met. For as Carlos Guevara, a member of the organization “Somos Defensores” (cited by Ramirez, 2017) states:, “A social leader or human rights defender is a weaver of wills”. However, currently in Colombia, social leaders and human rights defenders run serious risks; their lives are threatened and they have been killed, making this role one of the most dangerous jobs in the country. According to Amnesty (2020), it has been estimated that more than 100 social leaders and human rights defenders were executed throughout 2020, and Araya (2021) explains that 101 social leaders were murdered in just the first half of 2021. Seen more broadly, since the signing of the Peace Agreement between the Colombian government and the FARC guerrilla organisation in 2016, 1,217 social leaders have been assassinated (Araya, 2021). Furthermore, according to the OHCHR (cited by Human rights watch, 2021) at least 49 women human rights defenders have been murdered since 2016, sixteen of them in 2019 alone. In 2020, the OHCHR found five murders of this type and verified another 10. In addition, three defenders have been raped since 2016. Likewise, among the types of leadership most affected by this violence, according to the news outlet DW (2021), community leaders have been worst affected, with indigenous leaders the next highest among the victims. It is also important to note that the OHCHR figures are lower than many national organisations report; this disparity is attributed to the verification capacity of the international organisation; this means that the statistics are most likely higher than those mentioned above. These numbers demonstrate the insecurity and risk of being a social leader and even more so, being a woman and an indigenous leader, as was Aura Esther Garcia.

Aura’s case

It is important to understand that being a social leader is not the same as being a female social leader. In Colombia, even when both face different types of threats, women are more prone to mockery and discrediting simply for being women. They become targets not only because of their leadership, but because with their activism they are deconstructing the idea that only men can be leaders, and the only ones willing to fight and get angry. Women tend to be seen as inferior so it is even more difficult for them to generate authority among their communities and with the government to accomplish projects. This is the case of Aura Esher Garcia Peñalver, who was a social female leader in La Guajira.

Aura was not only a female social leader but also a Wayuu woman who, according to Semanario de Voz (2021), was an active member of the indigenous resistance of Colombia in conjunction with the non-profit organization “Nación Wayúu”, which is dedicated to the defense of human rights. She worked with this organization in denouncing the mismanagement of children’s resources related to the School Feeding Plan. Aura, who was against the mismanagement of these resources in the department, was murdered at the entrance of her community in the company of her husband following an ambush by assailants on a motorcycle. The victim received several gunshot wounds that ended her life. Since 2018, eight relatives of Aura Esther have been murdered. Statistics show that it is a reality that in our country being a social leader is a matter of risk. As mentioned previously, several sources within Colombia present statistics even more startling than the figures presented by the OHCHR: since 2016, around 131 female leaders have been assassinated according to Noguera (2020), who claims that it is important that as a community we understand this and demand greater measures from the government to ensure the protection of our social leaders. Just like Aura, thousands of women leaders die in Colombia at the hands of perpetrators of violence. While the perpetrators of these crimes often escape punishment, understanding the context in the regions and sub-regions where they occur can help to identify a motive.

Social Context

The department of La Guajira is very rich in culture, gastronomy, and tourism, among other areas. There is a strong concentration of Wayuu communities which are a traditional, historical, indegenous community who are known as the people of the sun , sand and wind. The Wayuu are also the most populous indigenous community among the indigenous demographic which makes up 4.4% of Colombia’s population. They live in the La Guajira peninsula, a desert area in the northeast of Colombia; full of cultural significance for these people.

One of the biggest problems in the region is the tremendous corruption that it suffers, and due to this financial mismanagement, many children suffer daily from poor nutrition, a situation that has been present for years without much improvement. This is why it is suitable to affirm that the issues which affect La Guajira stem from a “domino effect” caused by corruption.

La Guajira had the potential of becoming a failed department. According to an investigation called “Bolsillos de cristal”,which was promoted by the Office of the Attorney General in order to fight against corruption, it was proved that judicial officials in combination with public leaders, businessmen, and even members of the Wayuu community contributed to the waste and robbery of funds for the region, and these practices were labeled as systemic in the politics of La Guajira. This type of practice has produced crises in sectors such as health and education; feeding off the vulnerable in terms of attention to early childhood, public work and many other sectors (El Espectador, 2016).

The solution to the historic abandonment of La Guajira lies in breaking the vicious cycle that has formed between the ineffectiveness of the system and the courts. However, there are other factors beyond the mismanagement of financial resources which affect the region and its communities at an environmental and social level.

La Guajira is a major coal-producing region. The sub-soil in this region is rich in coal, and concessions for mining were highly coveted despite the region’s status as a protected sanctuary for indigenous communities. The Wayúu indigenous people have inhabited the region for centuries. This community’s livelihood (as well as the livelihood of other minorities) has been caught between these mining concessions and the armed conflict, seeing as regions such as La Guajira with a poor state presence have a historic presence of illegal armed groups. There is also a history of overlap between these two factors in the region with coal mining company Drummond being accused of involvement with right-wing paramilitaries in the neighbouring department of Cesar (Reuters, 2018).

In response to the negative environmental and social impacts of open-pit coal mining in the region, several international and Colombian NGOs have filed simultaneous complaints against Glencore, BHP, and Anglo American, parent companies of the Cerrejón mine, the largest open-pit coal mine in Latin America, alleging serious human rights violations and devastating environmental impacts such as excessive water consumption; aggressive efforts to divert rivers; pollution and a lack of engagement with communities to conduct adequate consultation processes. Affected communities claim that Cerrejón’s actions have also caused severe cultural and social damage to their community. (Corporate accountability lab).

Different leaders of Wayuu communities have been outraged by the different projects that directly affect the department in the environmental field as well as its activities and rights to water, safety, food and health, in addition to the right to prioritize and maintain the cultures of communities. These leaders decided to sign different guardianships to protect their environment, which sometimes caused them to receive threats from criminal groups when their only desire is to keep the environment healthy. One example of this is that in April 2019, Fuerza Mujeres Wayuu (another organisation which represents the interests of Wayuu communities in La Guajira) received death threats from a group identifying itself as Águilas Negras (Bloque Capital D.C). Threats identified several leaders within this organisation. Curiously, all of those threatened had been included in legal actions against the mining practices in the region. Moreover, members of the Wayúu community have reported the presence of strangers in their shelters and hanging around their homes at night. Unfortunately, Colombia is the most dangerous country in the world for human rights defenders, and has a long history of threats made against social leaders in regions like La Guajira, where there is a low state presence and conflicts between the interests of local communities and those interested in reaping financial benefits from the land. Sadly, the government is not helpful since it keeps indigenous and Afro-descendant leaders and communities abandoned; the authorities must guarantee their rights and implement better ways to provide food and water to families who are exposed to the risk of malnutrition.

Recommendations

Finally, the Colombian government, international organizations and legal authorities must come together to seek answers to the situation of human rights leaders and defenders in Colombia. According to La Republica (2021), the main reasons why social leaders are killed are due to factors such as poverty and the absence of the state, two factors which were evident in the case of Aura. Furthermore, there is the stigmatization of the work of these leaders do; insinuations that defenders and leaders are ideologically biased is used by illegal groups as justification for them being targets and it also obscures their needed work as defenders of rights. Among the recommendations, the UN has urged more presence of the State and the Ombudsman’s Office in the territories worst affected by violence, in order to remove the problem from the root, assuming that drug trafficking is the phenomenon that generates the most deaths of social leaders (La Republica, 2021). Likewise, the Truth Commission recommends finding ways to end stigmatization, concluding that it is necessary to make a security and prevention plan. Finally, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders stated that Colombia must recognize articles 8 and 9 of the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of violence against Women (OP CEDAW) that provides tools to guarantee female human rights defenders to be free from torture (Forest 2018). A final recommendation would be for the Colombian congress to ratify the Escazu agreement, which is a regional pact to bring more transparency over issues of environmental defense. Such measures could lead to tragic murders like Aura’s being avoided in the future.

Final reflection

In conclusion, the situation in Colombia in the face of the violation of human rights, the power vacuum of the government and the different forms of violence have led to a terrible wave of violence against those leaders who seek to promote and protect the rights of their communities and the country. The risks of being a social leader in the country are high and often lead to death.

Indeed, cases such as that of Aura Esther Garcia and many other cases of murdered women leaders in Colombia show us the essential role that women play as leaders; transforming and saving lives in places where it is most difficult to reach. Likewise, it shows the power vacuum that the State has in matters of justice and defense; many of the leaders who are killed in the country have previously denounced threats or attacks and the government does not act in time, especially with those leaders who are in the most marginalized areas of Colombia. This situation needs to change in order for these regions to have the opportunities that their vulnerable populations deserve.

*Article written by Maria Altamar, Catalina Hernandez & Sarah Pulgar. 

REFERENCES

Amnesty International. (2021, August 25). Colombia’s social leaders are still being killed during the quarantine. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/06/lideres-sociales-nos-siguen-matando-durante-cuarentena

Ramirez, L. (2017, November). “Un líder social o un defensor de DD.HH. es un tejedor de voluntades”: Carlos Guevara | Radio Nacional. Radio Nacional de Colombia.https://www.radionacional.co/cultura/un-lider-social-o-un-defensor-de-ddhh-es-un-tejedor-de-voluntades-carlos-guevara

Semanario de Voz. (2021, April 18). Mujer wayúu. Semanario Voz. https://semanariovoz.com/mujer-wayuu/Human Rigths Watch. (2021, February 12). Left Undefended. Human Rights Watch. https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/02/10/left-undefended/killings-rights-defenders-colombias-remote-communities

Editorial La República S.A.S. (2021, February 10). ¿Qué puede hacer Colombia para enfrentar la violencia contra los líderes? Diario La República. https://www.larepublica.co/especiales/lideres-sociales-en-colombia/que-puede-hacer-colombia-para-enfrentar-la-violencia-contra-los-lideres-3123675

Forest, M. (2018, December). Declaración de Fin de Misión. Naciones Unidas El Relator Especial de las Naciones Unidas sobre la Situación de los Defensores y las Defensoras de Derechos Humanos. https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Defenders/StatementVisitColombia3Dec2018_SP.pdf

Amnesty. (n.d.). Defensores y defensoras de los derechos humanos. Amnistía Internacional Sección Española. Retrieved September 25, 2021, from https://www.es.amnesty.org/en-que-estamos/temas/defensores

OHCHR. (n.d.). OHCHR | About human rights defenders. United Nations Human Rights. Retrieved September 2021, from https://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/SRHRDefenders/Pages/Defender.aspx

Corporate accountability lab. Corporate accountability lab, 08 02 2021, https://corpaccountabilitylab.org/calblog/2021/2/8/how-to-get-away-with-impunity-cerrejns-evasion-from-accountability.