Environmental Human Rights: News & Updates

The Nasa Indigenous people of northern Cauca Department have been victim to armed violence for many years. One of the primary armed actors is the Central General Staff (EMC), founded by dissident members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels who reject the 2016 peace accords.

Among the revered community leaders of La Bodega reservation is Carmen Yule Paví, age 62, whom residents affectionately called “La Mayora” (the mayor). A weaver with a profound respect for the spiritual essence of nature, she would ask plants for permission to use their leaves in fabrics. As co-founder of the Tejedoras AMA group and professor at the Intercultural Indigenous Autonomous University, she encouraged women to see the practice of weaving as a way to be more independent. Opening paths for other women, she invited them to her house to discuss violent situations they were experiencing.  

The resilient leader and Nasa Yuwe speaker had been a victim of conflict on several occasions, but it was the murder of two of her elven children (2020 and 2021) that led her to fight for the community. She was a staunch vocal opponent of the EMC; their forced recruitment of Nasa children infuriated her. She said that she preferred to die before they took more young people.

On March 16, while community residents attempted to rescue one of their neighbors who had been kidnapped (a young man), armed men fired on the community, and Carmen Yule Paví was shot in the head. She died a day later.

assassinated: two members of the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó

The farming families of the self-declared Peace Community of San José de Apartadó in the Urabá region of Antioquia Department have suffered many tragedies over the past 27 years: hundreds of murders, sexual violence, massive displacements, destruction of homes, usurpation of land, and burning of crops.

In Las Delicias, one of the farming communities that make up the Peace Community, residents have been opposing the construction of an illegal road because it is a protected zone at risk for deforestation. Road construction is likely to benefit transnational corporations; there is a container port being built nearby and a coal deposit under the community’s property that the state permitted for extraction many years ago.

On March 19, just days after Nallely Sepúlveda voiced her opposition at the mayor’s office, armed actors entered her home and shot her in the head; they also killed her young brother-in-law, Edison David, age 14. The bodies were discovered by Nallely’s three young children.

In Colombia, the situation for social leaders remains dangerous, with frequent attacks ranging from threats to kidnappings and even death. The recent assassination of Faber de Jesús Rincón Pérez in Yondó, Antioquia, exemplifies this issue. He was ambushed by armed individuals on motorcycles while returning home at 11:40am on February 3. Despite efforts to seek medical help, Faber Rincón Pérez succumbed to four gunshot wounds. Authorities are asked to investigate whether the victim had received prior threats from criminal groups in the area. A reward of 10 million pesos has been offered for information leading to the apprehension of the perpetrators and those behind the murder. Thirty year-old Faber de Jesús Rincón Pérez was recognized for his advocacy for workers' rights in the oil industry through the organization Guardia Obrera.

Several Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities in the Bajo San Juan River region of Buenaventura, Valle del Cauca Department, have declared themselves as Peace Facilitating Territories. Nevertheless, they are still subject to intimidation and even periods of confinement, primarily due to the presence of the Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces (AGC paramilitaries) and the National Liberation Army (ELN rebels) On February 1, armed men entered the Wounaan Indigenous Reserve by boat at Unión San Juan, intimidated community residents, and forced another boat  to take them to Puerto Pizario. There they acquired markers from some shops and proceeded to write the logo and initials of the ELN on some homes in the town.  Another boat picked them up at the pier at 1:00 pm. They fear another period of confinement (and humanitarian crisis) like the one they experienced in February 2023.

For the past five years, IRTF has played an active role in the international campaign to support the Guapinol River defenders in northern Honduras. They are up against some mighty players with interlocking ownerhip: Emco Holdings (thermal electric generation), Inversiones Los Pinares (iron oxide mine), and Ecotek (pelletizing plant). Some principle owners include family members of the longstanding oligarchy. Ana Facussé, daughter deceased land baron Miguel Facussé, and her husband Lenir Pérez (currently residing in Florida and under investigation by the FBI), are the owners of Inversiones Los Pinares and have financial stakes in the other companies.

Environmental defenders like Carlos Leonel George have been falsely criminalized, stigmatized, and imprisoned. He was already previously criminalized and imprisoned (falsely) in 2019 for his active participation in the organized environmental defense movement led by the Municipal Committee for the Defense of Common and Public Goods of Tocoa (CMDBCPT).  On January 28, he was detained again on an old arrest warrant. This recent illegal arrest signals a reactivated campaign against environmental defenders leading up to the request of renewal by Inversiones Los Pinares for its mining concession.