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Luis Guevara. Gloria Ocampo and the imprint of deforestation.
Article researched and written by Catalina Calderon & Paulo Coronell
Magnificent landscapes, amazing biodiversity, beautiful people, and multicultural metropolises. These are some of the characteristics through which Colombia could be described, but something deeper and darker permeates all of these positive characteristics. Biodiversity and the environment in general are constantly at risk in Colombia, generally caused by corporate greed or illegal groups. Few Colombians dare to give all they have to protect the environmental treasure of the country, and those that do fight for environmental preservation, those who are referred to here as environmental leaders, have their lives threatened and often taken. Human rights organizations like “Somos Defensores” counted 837 social and environmental leaders assassinated from 2005 to 2019; another human rights organization named “Front Line Defenders” reported that only in the year 2019, 40% of the assassinated leaders could be identified as environmental leaders. This situation should not keep escalating as these environmental leaders are a fundamental part of society; this being said, environmental leaders are reported as being one of the most affected and assassinated as part of the wave of violence towards social leaders in Colombia as they are seen as an interference regarding the exploitation of natural resources. This text will share some experiences of these leaders with the purpose of informing people about their work and their importance.
The first environmental leader mentioned will be Luis Guevara. Luis is a social leader and the president of the “Junta de Acción Comunal'' (JAC), a non-profit civic corporation made up by the residents of a place who join efforts and resources to find solutions for their community, from the “Las Colinas'' neighborhood situated in the town of Acacías, in the department of Meta. Originally from Santander, he had to relocate to the department of Meta as the hydrocarbon and refinery industry, which in addition to the emission of carbon monoxide that contributes to climate change and also pollutes the water by dumping its waste materials near water sources , had taken a significant toll not only on the ecosystem, but also on the health of Luis and his family. In the year 2010 Luis learned that a seismic exploration carried out by the petrol company Ecopetrol was about to take place in his new home, “Piedemonte llanero” in Meta. This triggered Luis who refused to relive this environmental catastrophe again, so he studied how this seismic exploration would damage the ecosystem, and he discovered that the water systems around the area would be contaminated, generating a disaster for the local community and the ecosystem. Luis organized the community and other social leaders to protest against Ecopetrol’s actions. As formal approaches were not successful, he educated the community and even started to unite with other leaders to plan how to ask the government to extend environmental protection licenses to “El Piedemonte”. Peaceful protests have been met with strict responses from the public forces such as imprisonment and profiling of protestors as terrorists. It is alleged that infiltrators have entered protests as saboteurs and managed to foment chaos through the use of violent acts such as fighting and vandalism. Furthermore, the petrol company also treats people like Luis as eco-terrorists, claims which have caused threats not only against Luis’s life but against his family’s well-being, a pattern of behaviour well known to environmental leaders in Colombia as it just keeps on occurring; activists who stand up in defense of the environment or of basic human rights are equated with violent insurgents. This is a perilous situation in a country such as Colombia with so many dangerous armed actors. Luis has managed to keep on protecting the environment, but few are the lucky ones who get to not only continue their work, but to avoid being killed.
Marlene Arévalo is another of the lucky environmental leaders that has managed to keep on doing her work and not lose her life in the process. Cancer survivor, wife, mother and social leader, Marlene has also taken matters into her own hands to protect water sources and natural corridors, stretching from the Orinoquía region to the rest of the country, from petroleum companies. She assumed the difficult task of educating communities about the importance of natural resources and how to maintain them. Marlene has organized peaceful protests and blockades to prevent massive drills which would have caused environmental disasters, and she has also inspired more than 60 thousand families that depend on various rivers to become more conscious about not only their economic value but their environmental worth. Marlene has suffered an enormous amount of threats, not only consisting of phone calls, but also face to face threats. She has become so accustomed to the threats that she even jokes about them to show that she is not afraid and that her work is more valuable than her own life. Sadly for many other leaders such threats have escalated resulting in the loss of their lives and of their work. The gravity of this situation is shockingly demonstrated seeing as Colombia went from being the second country in the world with environmental leaders assassinated with 24 cases in 2019 to taking the first position the following year with 64 assassinations in 2020. In order to fully understand the scale and depth of this issue, it is vital to learn about the cases of these slain environmental defenders.
The third environmental leader in this text, Yamid Alonso Silva, did not count with the luck of the first two leaders previously mentioned. Yamid was killed for defending and promoting the environmental lands of Boyaca, situated in the middle of the country. On February 6th of 2019, at 11:20am, Yamid Silva was found dead at his place of work. Yamid's life had always been one of service. He finished high school and later joined the Colombian national army. Following this, he returned to Boyaca to work as treasurer of community action boards (JAC) in some villages in the municipality of Cocuy where he was a natural park official. Like many cases involving the murder of leaders and activists in Colombia, Yamid’s murderers arrived by motorcycle. In the investigation that was carried out, both murderers were identified as being part of the ELN (Ejercito de Liberacion Nacional), as part of a structure called the Páramo Commission that belongs to the front of Adonai Ardila, one of the heads of the group. This structure is also responsible for committing crimes in Arauca, Casanare and Boyacá. Yamid was a man enchanted with his land, in love with the moors and a defender of the natural resources generated by these lands. He liked to work in the fields, care for and preserve the land. This was his life and he loved it. It is said that one of the reasons for Yamid's death is that, as mentioned before, he had been a soldier in the national army, and he had spent time there in the high mountain battalion, which is where they ended his life. Yamid was singled out by the ELN as an informer to the military forces, being there as a point of contact for the operations that can be carried out in the zones. The ELN has the objective of dividing the population, attacking with fear and interfering in this area of the department of Boyacá. From the moment he got killed, the family continues to hope that the aggressors pay, that they don't get away with murder without paying consequences. Yamid's father called out for a better level of security and justice with the case that was presented for his son. Such scenarios play out in various parts of the country. The armed actors may vary from region to region but those working in defense of nature or their community’s interests face dire consequences for their noble work, and Yamid is far from being the only victim.
The last case presented is that of Gloria Isabel Ocampo, a woman who was assassinated for promoting crop substitution programs in Putumayo. Gloria’s case is one of the most clear examples of the violence that Colombia goes through every day. Gloria (37 years old) was shot dead alongside Eladio Moreno (69 years old) by gunmen in a village in Puerto Guzman. According to information provided by the community, the woman was in a house when two subjects arrived by motorcycle and after calling her name, they shot her and Moreno repeatedly. Relatives of Moreno confirmed that since 2019 Gloria Isabel had been receiving death threats for leading the voluntary manual eradication program of illicit crops in her village. From the information provided, so far this year, 5 people have been murdered in this department in different events: two in La Hormiga, two in Puerto Guzmán, and one in Mocoa. According to the Putumayo Human Rights Network, 17 community leaders have received death threats from illegal armed groups operating in this region. Gloria’s role in crop substitution programs also situates her case in the pattern of leaders being killed for their promotion of such transitions for rural communities from illicit to legal crop cultivation. These programs were a significant aspect of the 2016 peace agreement between the Colombian government and the FARC guerrillas, but in the four years following the agreement, 75 such leaders were murdered throughout various parts of Colombia (El Espectador). It is alarming all the situations and problems that social leaders have to go through. This should bring concern to the government and other social organizations, to help families and villages that have to carry on with this weight. There should be more awareness and caring about the lives that have been taken. The victims are not just the lives of countless social leaders, but the broken families and rudderless communities they leave behind.
All of the cases presented have explained the way of living and the difficulties that social and environmental leaders must cope with in their territories. Although some of them only receive threats and constant interruptions in their work, others have paid with their lives. Colombians are strong believers that they would do anything to defend their territories. The love of defending and accomplishing tasks fulfills these types of persons as they have delivered and worked their entire lives for the common good of their population. For this reason, although many of them are exposed and have to move to other places, defending and creating awareness is the most important thing for them. It is also vital to note the valuable work that so many environmental defenders conduct in the protection of Colombia’s biodiversity. By extension, their work is in defense of Colombia, and what makes the country so unique. Making sure that these leaders are free to carry out their invaluable work free from threats and violence should be a matter of urgency for all of us.
References:
Asesinan una líder social que promovía sustitución de cultivos en Putumayo. P. (2020, 7 enero) Noticias de Norte de Santander, Colombia y el mundo. https://www.laopinion.com.co/colombia/asesinan-una-lider-social-que-promovia-sustitucion-de-cultivos-en-putumayo
El doloroso llanto del Nevado. (2020, 24 marzo). openDemocracy. https://www.opendemocracy.net/es/el-doloroso-llanto-del-nevado/
El peso del estigma: la amenaza contra los líderes ambientales del. (2017). Universidad de Bogotá Jorge Tadeo Lozano. https://www.utadeo.edu.co/es/articulo/crossmedialab/277626/el-peso-del-estigma-la-amenaza-contra-los-lideres-ambientales-del-meta-marlen-arevalo
Latam, M. (2021, 9 abril). La historia del ‘guardián del loro orejiamarillo’ asesinado en Colombia. El Comercio Perú. https://elcomercio.pe/tecnologia/ecologia/la-historia-del-guardian-del-loro-orejiamarillo-asesinado-en-colombia-noticia/?ref=ecr
«Si defender el territorio y el agua es ser terrorista, somos terroristas». (2018). Rutas del conflicto. https://www.rutasdelconflicto.com/especiales/LideresAmbientalesDelMetaEnAmenaza/LuisGuevara/Estigmatizacion.html
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