Colombia, 11/22/2022

November 22, 2022

Dear Sirs:

Carlos Alberto García Sepúlveda was a leader of the Organization of Indigenous Reservations of the Awá People of the Pacific (ORIPAP). He is more than just a number, and yet he is also the 156th social leader assassinated in the course of this year, with a total of 1,376 leaders killed since the signing of the Peace Agreement in 2016.

Carlos Alberto García Sepúlveda, age 22, was traveling by bus when three individuals dressed in hoods forced him out of the bus. They murdered him just 300 meters from his house in the municipality of Tumaco, Nariño Department, where he lived with his parents and his two-year-old son.

Several armed groups are known to be active in the area. The Ombudsman's Office issued Urgent Alert AT 045/19 "focusing on the Awá people, by means of which it indicates the improper occupation of the territories of the Awá people by armed actors." Those armed actors include: Los Contadores, the Urías Rondón Mobile Column of the Western Coordinating Command, the Alfonso Cano Western Bloc, and the Oliver Sinisterra Front.

We share this information with you as a measure of accountability with the demand that Indigenous leaders stop being murdered and injured. Armed groups clearly target indigenous leaders for a reason, and the root of the causes need to be identified and dismantled. The Peace Agreement needs to be followed in order for peace to finally come to these territories.

We urge that you

• conduct a thorough and transparent investigation into the assassination of Carlos Alberto García Sepúlveda, publish the results, and bring those responsible to justice
• offer state protection for the Awá communities in Tumaco, in strict accordance with their wishes
• take measures to dismantle illegal armed groups operating in Nariño Department

Sincerely,

Brian J. Stefan Szittai               Christine Stonebraker-Martínez

Co-Coordinators

copies:         Luis Gilberto Murillo, Ambassador of Colombia to the US ~ via email, US mail

Joel Hernández García, Rapporteur for Colombia ,  Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) ~ via email, US mail

Esmeralda Arosemena de Troitiño, Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (IACHR) ~ via email, US mail

UN: Juliette De Rivero, Representative in Colombia of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights ~ via email

US Embassy: Francisco Palmieri (Chargé d’Affaires, ad interim); Kristen Farrell (human rights); Mariel Chatman (vulnerable populations) ~ via email

US State Department: Christine Russell, Desk Officer for Colombia ~ via email

US Senators Brown & Portman ~ via email

US Representatives Beatty, Brown, Gibbs, Gonzalez, Johnson, Jordan, Joyce, Kaptur, Latta, Ryan ~ via email

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