Some 350 peasants, several of them belonging to families to whom the Colombian State restored land after being displaced in 1998 by paramilitary groups, were displaced from the rural sector known as La Secreta, in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia. This, due to armed combat between drug trafficking organizations, official sources reported this Sunday.
This area has been the scene, for several days, of armed confrontations between the “Clan del Golfo” and the group called “Clan Pachenca” or Self-Defense Forces Conquerors of the Sierra.
This was confirmed by the Government of Magdalena (north) after a security council in which the national government was asked for support “to provide urgent attention to the threat of paramilitary return in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta.”
In addition to the call to accompany the government of the Colombian president, Ivan Duke, the Secretary of the Interior of Magdalena, Nayara Vargas, announced the increase in Army troops in the sector. Also, that actions will be carried out to “mitigate the fracture of the social fabric presented.”
two murders
The displaced in Colombia reported to the authorities that two young men from their community were killed in the midst of the fighting. The bodies were several days on a road because the armed groups did not allow them to pick them up.
Investigator Lerber Dimas told Efe that the displaced from La Secreta are in the cities of Santa Marta and Ciénaga, in the towns of Río Frío and San Pedro, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada and in the village of El Reposo, also in the sector.
“Today about 60 people arrived, but there are more than 300, that village (village) is practically left alone,” explained Dimas. In addition, he recalled that a few months ago there were clashes.
In this regard, the Human Rights Defender and consultant on issues of security and coexistence, Norma Vera Salazar. He denounced three years ago that the Clan del Golfo would start a war for control of the territory and illegal rents, she told Efe that “this new situation was warned long ago.”
“Only yesterday (Saturday) they displaced around 200 people.” Those who stayed on the farms were ordered by the Clan del Golfo to leave the place, Vera explained. At the same time, she assured that “they displaced around 350 peasants, we had already warned about it in February of this year.”
Triplets among the displaced in Colombia
Among the displaced are the sisters Dania, Dalia and Daniela Castillo. These —in 1998, at the age of 3— the paramilitary groups murdered their parents and a brother. For this reason, they were left in the care of her sister, who was barely 15 years old at the time.
In 2013, at the age of 17, the Castillo sisters became the first minors to benefit from the land restitution law put into effect by then President Juan Manuel Santos.
At that time, the San Marcos property was restored to them, corresponding to three parcels (about 25 hectares) in which they started organic coffee crops.
However, now —at the age of 21— they had to leave their place of residence again because of the violence.
