Bogota, Colombia – Greater than 100 Colombian human rights associations from distant Afro-Colombian and Indigenous communities have written to the brand new US administration to ask for assist with the continued violence and killings they face.
“Our black, indigenous and rural farming communities dwelling in distant areas round Colombia have lived for over 40 years within the midst of an armed battle … and in the present day we proceed to undergo,” reads the opening paragraph of the letter addressed to US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
“Persecutions, tortures, murders, pressured disappearances, displacement, the violent dispossession of land, sexual violence, stigmatization and silencing is what we now have to undergo in our territories or we’ll be killed,” it stated.
In 2016, the Colombian authorities signed a controversial peace settlement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), ending 5 a long time of battle.
However the nation has continued to grapple with violence.
The reintegration of demobilised combatants has not been absolutely applied by the present right-wing authorities of Ivan Duque. New armed teams have emerged within the areas FARC left behind, who violently vie for management of valuable lands for illicit economies, like gold mining or drug trafficking. A whole lot of human rights activists have been killed because the peace deal, in addition to lots of of ex-combatants who signed as much as the settlement.
Among the many worst affected are these in rural communities, lots of whom proceed to reside in concern 4 years after the signing of the settlement.
The letter the communities compiled by means of varied organisations requested the US administration for assist in guaranteeing the achievement of what was agreed with the FARC, a restart to peace talks with present insurgent group the ELN (Nationwide Liberation Military), extra public insurance policies constructed alongside the folks from rural areas, land reforms, illicit crop substitution and extra institutional state presence in distant areas.
The letter is because of be delivered to the US congress subsequent week.
On the primary day of the brand new administration, Biden signed a sequence of govt orders geared toward undoing a few of the most controversial Trump administration insurance policies, addressing immigration reforms and halting development of a wall alongside the US-Mexico border.
Some human rights teams see these steps as a optimistic signal and are hopeful that the brand new administration can pay extra consideration to human rights points not solely within the US, but additionally in Latin American international locations.
“There may be hope that the Biden administration will prioritise peace, safety of social leaders and rights of Afro-Colombians in US international coverage in the direction of Colombia,” stated Gimena Sanchez, Andes director on the Washington Workplace on Latin America (WOLA).
“Leaders and communities throughout Colombia are writing to Biden urging his administration to knock sense into Duque that these affected by violence and battle need peace, dismantlement of unlawful armed teams, engagement with the ELN, efficient safety, respect for ethnic rights and a cease to the anti-peace efforts his administration has taken,” she stated.
Sergio Guzman, political analyst and director of Colombia Danger Evaluation, stated the Biden administration is more likely to be extra targeted on the peace settlement and the state of affairs with Afro-Colombian and Indigenous communities than the earlier authorities.
“[This is] partly additionally due to the management in Congress. Gregory Meeks, from the Overseas Affairs Committee has been pushing for Afro-Colombian rights for a really very long time,” Guzman stated.
The cultivation of coca, the uncooked ingredient for cocaine, stays prevalent in lots of rural areas and Guzman stated he expects to new US administration to prioritise selling insurance policies similar to crop substitution in its relations with Bogota.
“In contrast, in the course of the Trump years, the problem had way more of a give attention to numbers and decreasing Colombia’s numbers was the be all and finish the entire relationship. I feel we’re in for a way more complete strategy to the drug difficulty,” he stated.