Anti-Militarism: News & Updates

Members of the Inter-Church Commission for Justice and Peace (CIJP) are subjected to continuous surveillance, intimidation, and credible threats against their lives. Beginning in March, CIJP member Juan Carlos Gaona, began receiving text messages. The first stated that an operation to murder him in Sincelejo, Sucre Department, had failed only by chance due to the presence of an Army truck near the place where he was holding a meeting. The message described his recent activities in detail, revealing that he was under surveillance, and warned that he would not be as fortunate next time, with the clear intention of attacking him and other members.

This incident is not an isolated occurrence but more a symbolic case of the danger faced by human right defenders in Colombia by illegal armed groups who directly target those who support and accompany victims of human rights violations. The failure of the state to fully implement the protection scheme ordered by of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (Protection Measures 629-03) needs to be addressed now. When defenders are silenced through threats, fear, and violence, the protection of all victims is placed at risk.

Nahua Indigenous communities in the states of Michoacan and Guerrero—already victim to criminal organizations for decades—are now being forcefully displaced and targeted by military grade weaponry as the territorial disputes between the groups “Los Tlacos” and “Los Ardillos” are intensifying. Using high-caliber weapons, surveillance drones, and paramilitary tactics, the rivaling groups have encircled villages, burned homes, cut electricity and phone service, and fired shots at residents from the hillsides. There have been more than 2,000 people displaced at least five reported murders.

We are concerned that the forced displacement might be linked to corruption and economic motives. Considering that the municipalities under attack hold forests, aquifers, fertile farmland and over 2,000 hectares that have already been granted as concessions to mining companies, there are surely other beneficiaries to the communities being forcibly removed.

While the Trump administration is exploiting this crisis to create a narrative to justify threats of military intervention in Mexico—a framing that we at IRTF entirely reject—the answer to what is happening cannot be silence or inaction.