The vice president and chancellor, Marta Lucía Ramírez, described as “cowardly and vile”, the murder of three members of the Awá Inda Sabaleta reservation, of the Indigenous Unit of the Awá People (Unipa), including Juan Orlando Moreano, who was the current alternate governor of the reservation; Other people were seriously injured in the incident.
The homicides were recorded in the rural area of the municipality of Tumaco (Nariño), as confirmed (on the afternoon of July 3) by the Observatory of Human Rights and Conflicts of the Institute of Studies for Development and Peace (Indepeace).
“Cowardly and vile that the violent are raging against our indigenous peoples. My solidarity with the Awá community of the Nariño Pacific for the painful murder of three members of his community, a reprehensible act that violates International Humanitarian Law,” Ramírez wrote through his Twitter account.
Also read: Prosecutor appointed commission to investigate massacre in Tumaco, Nariño
In her statement, the also Minister of Foreign Affairs, pointed out that, from the Vice Presidency of Colombia, they are working with the National Protection Unit (UNP), the Victims Unit, the Minister of the Interior, Daniel Palacios and the Hercules Joint Task Force of the General Command of the Armed Forces“to guarantee the protection of indigenous and Afro-descendant communities of the Nariñense Pacific.”
And he emphasized that the Government will continue to reinforce measures, “to prevent criminal acts from recurring“.
According to the Indepaz report, the armed attack occurred when the victims, together with other indigenous people, finished a meeting about the situation of the communities regarding the violation of human rights and when they were preparing to return to their homes, “actors of illegal armed groups shot them.”
You may be interested in: They launch an explosive device in the municipality of Suárez, Cauca
In the last hours it was announced the formation of a humanitarian mission of the indigenous guard to remove the bodies of the victims and transfer them to the National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences.
