94 US Congress Members Call Out Colombia's Duque Administration For Failures To Protect Human Rights
94 US Congress Members Call Out Colombia’s Duque Administration For Failures To Protect Human Rights Defenders & 2016 Peace Accord Implementation
by Loren Moss July 7, 2020
Yesterday, almost 100 members of the US Congress sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo asking him to put additional pressure on Colombian President Ivan Duque to implement the 2016 Peace Accords signed by previous President Juan Manuel Santos, and also to reverse the deteriorating security situation experienced by social, indigenous & Afrocolombian leaders in the country.
Over 400 human rights defenders have been killed since 2016. In most cases by rural mafias and drug traffickers. Under the Duque administration, coca harvests have reached all-time records. Local farmers who resist growing the crop; the raw ingredient for cocaine production, face intimidation and assassination by rural mafia enforcers, and there is almost a consensus that the government has failed to provide adequate protection.
The letter sent to Secretary Pompeo reads as follows. A PDF version can be downloaded here.
Dear Secretary Pompeo,
As the coronavirus pandemic exposes and magnifies existing problems in each of the countries it ravages, we are particularly concerned that it is affecting the safety of Colombia’s brave human rights defenders and social leaders who are putting their lives on the line to build lasting peace.
We write to ask you to actively urge the Duque Administration to consider recommitting to implementing the historic 2016 peace accords and protecting Colombia’s endangered human rights defenders whose vulnerability has only increased during the COVID-19 quarantine.
Colombia is now the most dangerous country in the world for human rights defenders. Over 400 human rights defenders have been murdered since the signing of the peace accords – a loss of committed and valiant civic leaders that Colombia cannot afford. The Colombian government’s slowness in implementing the peace accords, its failure to bring the civilian state into the conflict zones, and its ongoing inability to prevent and prosecute attacks against defenders have allowed this tragedy to go unchecked. This appears to have intensified as illegal armed groups take advantage of the pandemic while the government fails to respond, further increasing the vulnerability of targeted rights defenders and local leaders.
For example, on March 19, three armed men entered a meeting where farmers were discussing voluntary coca eradication agreements and killed community leader Marco Rivadeneira. He promoted peace and coca substitution efforts in his community, represented his region in the guarantees working group to protect human rights defenders, and was a member of the national human rights network Coordinación Colombia Europa Estados Unidos. Afro-Colombian, indigenous, and poor farming communities like the San José de Apartadó peace community continue to suffer and are even more vulnerable from the unchecked presence of illegal armed actors in their territories.
Marco Rivadeneira was one of 23 social leaders killed between March 15 and April 24, during the first weeks of Colombia’s pandemic lockdown. According to the Colombian NGO, Instituto de Estudios para el Desarrollo y la Paz – INDEPAZ, in the first six months of 2020, 153 social leaders and defenders were killed in Colombia.
More:
https://www.financecolombia.com/94-us-congress-members-call-out-colombias-duque-administration-for-failures-to-protect-human-rights-defenders-2016-peace-accord-implementation/
See list of Congress members who signed the article, great Democrats, as always:
https://www.financecolombia.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/US.Congreso.colombia_2020_-_final_-_hr_defenders_in_time_of_covid-19.pdf
