Excmo. Sr. Presidente Juan Manuel Santos
President of the Republic of Colombia
Estimado Sr. Ministro Juan Fernando Cristo
Minister of the Interior of Colombia
Sr. Eduardo Montealegre
Attorney General of Colombia
Dear Sirs:
We are deeply troubled at the assassination on August 3 of Gilmer Genaro García Ramírez, Afro-descendant community leader of the Alto Mira y Frontera Community Council in Tumaco Municipality in Nariño Department. He had been threatened previously and was under State protection through the National Protection Unit.
The community lives in an area where the guerrilla group, Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), is active. In October 2014 they had warned Genaro García that he would be killed if he continued his active role as a leader of the Alto Mira y Frontera Community Council. On behalf of Afro-Colombians, Gilmer Genaro García Ramírez had always advocated neutrality in the armed conflict.
On August 3, Genaro García was pressured to participate in a meeting with the FARC in the rural zone of Tumaco. On the way to the meeting, armed men stopped his car, made him get out and present his name and identification. One of two men who arrived on a motorbike shot and killed Genaro García.
Since 2012 the Afro-descendant Community Council of Alto Mira y Frontera has been seeking collective land titles and the recognition of their territorial rights through the land restitution process. In February 2013 a land restitution judge ordered that the National Protection Unit (UNP) urgently design and implement a protection plan for the leaders and members of the Alto Mira y Frontera Community Council. The Constitutional Court had also ordered protection for the community though Judicial Decrees (Autos) 005 of 2009 and 073 of 2014.
Because of our concern for the safety of the family of Genaro García and other members of the Alto Mira y Frontera Community Council, we strongly urge that you
- order full and impartial investigations into the killing of Genaro García and threats against other members of the Community Council, make the results public and bring all those involved to justice;
- immediately fulfill the orders of the Constitutional Court Judicial Decrees (Autos) 005 of 2009 and 073 of 2014;
- urge participants in the peace discussions in Havana to refrain from applying the agreement in a piecemeal manner, so that Tumaco and other places where violence and threats against residents are common, will receive the same protections agreed upon for residents in other parts of the country.
Sincerely,
Brian J. Stefan Szittai Christine Stonebraker-Martínez
Co-Coordinators
