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Luís Dario Rodriguez was yet another victim of the violence in the south of Córdoba
The systematic assassinations of social leaders in Colombia are of great concern because the numbers are alarming and this is something that cannot be happening in any way. For this reason, it is necessary to be aware of this situation since in almost all of the country’s departments at least one social leader has been assassinated, and the most serious thing is that most of these cases go unpunished before Colombian justice.
First of all, it is important to note that a social leader is “a person who has recognition of their community for conducting, coordinating or supporting collective processes or activities that positively affect the life of their community, improving and dignifying their living conditions or building social fabric” (The UN). In this sense, these people have as their main objective defending the rights of the least privileged, such as indigenous people, farmers, and Afro-Colombian communities, among others.
Given this situation, different organizations have documented and monitored the cases of assassinations of social leaders, however, as these events occur in different parts of the country and social sectors, it is difficult to have a record of all cases. According to Dejusticia (2019), a center for legal and social studies that is in charge of carrying out rigorous studies and proposing public policies, it is estimated that 284 social leaders were assassinated in 2018.
For its part, the National University of Colombia carried out a report in which it found that the departments with the highest homicide rate are: Chocó, Antioquia, Córdoba, Norte de Santander, Guaviare, Cauca and Nariño, and also the types of leadership of the victims represent: community civic leaders, leaders of community action boards, indigenous leaders, and Afro leaders, among others.
Many of the regions of Colombia are affected by this problem, but in this article we will focus on the department of Córdoba, since this is a territory with numerous problems, among which poverty, violence and a power vacuum stand out. Thus, the purpose of this article is to show that this situation deserves the attention of Colombians, the media and of young people in order to make a change in the country. For this, we will analyze the specific case of Luis Darío Rodríguez, a Colombian social leader who fought for the rights of the people of Córdoba regarding the recuperation of land on behalf of displaced people. The case of Luis Darío Rodriguez is not isolated, as it is one of the hundreds of cases of murdered social leaders in the country: this article focuses on important aspects about him, his context and his work.
Luis Darío Rodriguez was a social leader who lived in Nuevo Oriente in Tierralta, Córdoba, but unfortunately he was assassinated by unknown assailants on January 17th of this year.
It is important to know that like most, he had formed a family; he was husband and a father of three children. Also, he was a farmer dedicated to agriculture and fishing and in this way he supported his family. In relation to his role as leader, his work in the community of Tierralta was very important because he was one of the most important leaders in that rural area; he was also part of two associations and organizations in support of the welfare of his community.
Before his death, Luis Darío had been in charge of a process of claiming land rights, sovereignty and reparation for families who had suffered due to the flooding of land in the upper Sinú caused by the Urra hydroelectric plant (La FM, 2020). Through this project, Luis Darío sought to achieve the restoration of human rights for the population of Tierralta and the revitalization of the area through social projects such as the prioritization of local agricultural production to feed the population, allowing access for farmers to land, water and seeds, as well as farmers’ right to produce food.
In addition to this, Luis Dario was defined by his work ethic, and as was said previously, he was a member of different organizations that have served the community.
Luis Dario raised his voice and fought for the good of his community to protect it and denounce the bad conditions in which many in the region find themselves. So, these organizations were of great help to the social leader, as they served as a tool to offer their work to the people of his town and contribute to defending their rights.
One of these was the Association of Displaced and Vulnerable Families of Tierralta (UFADESVUL), of which Luís Darío was member. According to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) this association has legal status and is made up of approximately 120 families who are dedicated to presenting social and productive investment projects in order to serve and give a better quality of life to people who are displaced and in conditions of vulnerability. On the other hand, the social leader was also part of the Human Rights Network in Southern Córdoba. This non-governmental organization seeks to present effective actions to the different authorities to guarantee the rights of the population and create strategies to improve the territory and the series of problems that both the community and the region have. These associations take care of the different problems that the community has. Having outlined the projects that this leader was involved in, it is necessary to understand the political, social and cultural context of the place where Luis Darío resided.
The department in which Luis Darío lived has a series of issues that are important to take into account (Sánchez, 1996). Córdoba is located in the north of the country, specifically in the Caribbean region. Its capital is Montería, however, it integrates different important towns such as Montelíbano, Lorica, Sahagún, Cereté, and Tierralta -where the social leader lived- among others. Also it is essential to keep in mind that it is one of the most populated departments in Colombia. This area of the country, although it is very rich in its culture, its fauna and flora and its natural places, has urgent issues facing the population.
For many experts in the area, the general context of the department of Cordoba is worrying. There are traits of violence and violation of rights and freedoms that are unforgivable. For Negrette (2013), there is an increase in activities of illegal armed groups, a situation of displacement of peasants and indigenous people that does not stop, threats to journalists, teachers, social leaders and an increase in the number of homicides that nobody solves, and of which little is said.
According to Cordobexia -the organization that denounced the murder of Luis Darío-, southern Córdoba is a territory disputed by the Gaitanista self-defense groups of Colombia (AGC) and the Caparrapos -a drug smuggling organisation established by former paramilitaries-, together with the FARC dissidents. Many of the social leaders and human rights defenders in the department express that one of the most important reasons is the dispute over the Nudo del Paramillo area, which is strategic for illegal economies. Furthermore, according to this organization, there is an absence of effective actions by the State to guarantee the rights of the population. This explains the violence suffered by the inhabitants of the south of Córdoba, as well as other areas of the country such as the departments of Cauca and Antioquia, since they have also suffered the murder of many social leaders, in similar circumstances.
To all of the above, it can be added that in a 2018 report created by various NGOs and supported by the foreign office of Spain and the Netherlands (¿Cuales son las Patrones? Asesinatos de líderes sociales en el post acuerdo), various patterns across the killings were identified. It relates the problem of the assassinations of the social leaders after the peace agreement in Colombia, to the fact that there are still armed actors in the department that have political and economic motives that seek to obtain power and resources from the State. The document states that after the signing of the peace agreement, the rates of assassinations of social leaders have increased and other forms of violence have continued, such as kidnappings, displacement and violations of rights.
Likewise, the report presents a series of relationships that have to do with fundamental issues, such as rights violations, illicit crops, mining, illegal groups and paramilitaries, among others. To highlight, the violation of the right to life is very recurrent in the country, affecting 84.37% of its area, and Córdoba is no exception, as it is the region that occupies the fifth place with 16 violations of this right. Many of these modifications have to do with the use of land for drug trafficking, the presence of the military and armed groups, forced displacement and illegal extraction activities.
Additionally, the issue of illicit crops is so important because it can be seen that there is a pattern. The first ten departments with the highest number of murders of social leaders and human rights defenders – including Córdoba – coincide with the highest presence of coca cultivation; this is linked to point 4 of the peace agreements that talks about the treatment of these lands, and showing that many of the deaths of social leaders in those regions are directly related to issues of illicit crops.
Mining is another example due to this issue having always been related to the Colombian armed conflict and violation of human rights. The Office of the Ombudsman affirms that in 2015, illegal mining was practiced in 56% of Colombian territory and one of the most affected places was the department of Córdoba; this leads to environmental and social problems, so many environmental defenders came to light who openly declared themselves against the exploitation of commodities. In this sense many deaths were related to illegal mining and social leaders who protected the natural resources of the region.
The problems of illegality, armed groups and displacement can be absolutely linked to unemployment, lack of education and, of course, the huge power vacuum due to the lack of state presence; that mean that leaders like Luis Dario find themselves in a very dangerous situation and at the same time making Cordoba a notorious department for these issues.
In almost all of the country’s departments at least one social leader has been assassinated and the most serious thing is that most of these cases go unpunished before Colombian justice. According to Dejusticia (2019) it is estimated that 284 social leaders were assassinated in 2018.
Luis Darío Rodriguez was a great social leader, but he was also a husband and a father of three children who was dedicated to agriculture and fishing, and in this way he supported his family. He was part of two associations and organizations in support of the welfare of his community, the Association of Displaced and Vulnerable Families of Tierralta (UFADESVUL) and the Human Rights Network in Southern Córdoba. In Tierralta Córdoba, there are traits of violence and violation of rights and freedom that are unforgivable.
The killing of social leaders is a problem that the government does not pay enough attention to, and unfortunately there are so many cases like Luis Dario. They are all similar in the patterns surrounding them, but the human impact of their killing is the same. For that reason it is necessary that the Colombian government put into action public policies that recognize and promote the work of human rights defenders in the territories.
Article written by María Alejandra Ardila Ortega, Laura Vanessa Brugés Díaz and Daniela Carrasco.
CCJ, I., & Cinep, U. N. (2018). ¿ Cuáles son los patrones. Asesinatos de líderes sociales en el post-acuerdo. Bogotá. Retrieved from http://www.nocheyniebla.org/wp-content/uploads/u1/docs/cuales_son_los_patrones_final. pdf.
DeJusticia. (2019). Asesinatos de líderes sociales en Colombia: una estimación del universo. – Actualización 2018 (pp. 1-9). Bogotá. Retrieved from https://hrdag.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/2019-HRDAG-killings-colombi8a-update-spanish.pdf
El Espectador. (2019). La violencia que no termina por la restitución en Tierralta. Retrieved from https://www.elespectador.com/colombia2020/territorio/la-violencia-que-no-termina-por-la-restitucion-en-tierralta-articulo-869666
La FM. (2020) Asesinan al líder social de Córdoba, Luis Darío Rodríguez Narváez. Retrieved from https://www.lafm.com.co/colombia/asesinan-al-lider-social-de-cordoba-luis-dario-rodriguez-narvaez
La Libertad. (2020). Asesinan en Córdoba al líder social Luís Darío Rodríguez. Retrieved from https://diariolalibertad.com/sitio/2020/01/18/asesinan-en-cordoba-al-lider-social-luis-dario-rodriguez/
Sánchez, A. (1996). Tierralta: Refugio de la violencia. El Tiempo. Retrieved from https://www.eltiempo.com/archivo/documento/MAM-347407
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