January 16, 2024
Dear Sirs:
We are writing to demand justice for the assassination of Indigenous Nasa leader Phanor Guazaquillo Peña. On December 3, 2023, hitmen arrived at the funeral for another Nasa leader (Manuel Carlosama) that Phanor Guazaquillo Peña was attending at a cemetery in Puerto Asís, Putumayo Department.
Phanor Guazaquillo Peña was the Indigenous governor of the Nasa Kwesx Kiwe tribe. He served as delegate to the Special High Level Instance for Ethnic Peoples (Instancia Especial de Alto Nivel para Pueblos Étnicos, or IEANPE), a mechanism established to advance the implementation of the Ethnic Chapter of the 2016 Peace Accords.
On December 3, an unknown person wearing a mask approached Phanor Guazaquillo Peña and shot him. He fell to the ground, but did not die instantly. The shooter shot him numerous times and pointed his weapon at those present. Then he fled the scene in a motorcycle, driven by another accomplice. Phanor’s body, still with vital signals, was transported in a funeral vehicle found on site to the hospital in Puerto Asís, but he unfortunately died due to the severity of his wounds on the way.
Phanor Guazaquillo Peña, a Santander de Quilichao native, was 45 years old, father to four children, leader and authority of the Nasa Community in Putumayo, and current governor of the Cabildo Nasa Kwésx Kiwe
Phanor Guazaquillo Peña became the 155th social leader killed in 2023. Civil society organizations denounce the serious security situation facing social leaders, particularly Indigenous leaders. They call on all armed actors (namely organized criminal groups and illegal armed groups) to stop the killing of social leaders and other non-combatant civilians.
We urge that you
- publish the results of the investigation of the assassination of Phanor Guazaquillo Peña and bring those responsible to justice
- work with the Nasa Indigenous communities of Putumayo to provide protection measures, in accordance with their wishes
- move forward in designing (and funding) a new comprehensive plan for the protection of social leaders, as ordered by the Constitutional Court, and involve social leaders in the process
Sincerely,
Brian J. Stefan Szittai Christine Stonebraker-Martínez
Co-Coordinators
copies:
reLuis Gilberto Murillo, Ambassador of Colombia to the US ~ via email, US mail
José Luis Caballero Ochoa, Rapporteur for Colombia , Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) ~ via email, US mail
Arif Bulkan, Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (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); Adam Levy (human rights) ~ via email
US State Department: Desk Officer for Colombia ~ via email
US Senators from Ohio: Brown & Vance ~ via email
US Representatives from Ohio: Beatty, Brown, Jordan, Joyce, Kaptur, Latta, Miller, Sykes ~ via email
