At least 78 human rights defenders were murdered in Colombia in 2021, most of them in the department of Cauca’s Valley, reported this Wednesday the UN Office for Human Rights in the country.
“From January 1 to December 31, 2021, the UN Office for Human Rights knew 202 allegations of homicides of defenders. Of this has verified 78 cases, 39 cases are in the verification process and 85 cases are inconclusive“said the international body in a report published today on its website.
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The body clarifies that the figure does not represent the totality of murders in Colombia but the cases they have received and verified.
When breaking down the information, the UN Office for Human Rights indicated that of the total murdered eight were women and five of them were indigenous. Of the 70 men, six belonged to Afro communities and six were indigenous.
Valle del Cauca, the most affected
The highest number of homicides against defenders occurred in Valle del Cauca, where 31 were murdered, five of them in Cali, the departmental capital, which was the epicenter of protests in the middle of last year against the government’s social and economic policy.
Meanwhile in the neighboring department of Cauca the number of murdered was eleven, three of them in the town of Algeria, constantly besieged by illegal armed groups.
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These two departments have been in a spiral of violence originating in the disputes of different groups outside the law, What dissidents from the FARC, the guerrillas of the National Liberation Army (ELN) and Mexican cartels, fighting for control of the land for drug trafficking.
Likewise, the UN Office for Human Rights documented that in Antioquia six defenders were assassinated, Meanwhile in Chocó, bordering Panama, and Cundinamarca, there were five in each.
The department of North of Santander, bordering Venezuela, in whose territory they were killed four defenders.
Also read: They assassinate a Human Rights defender in the north of Cauca
Of the 39 crimes that the agency is verifying, the majority occurred in Cauca (8), Nariño (6), Antioquia (5), Putumayo and Bolívar (4) and Valle del Cauca (3).
Additionally, he pointed out that In 85 of the allegations they received, it was not possible to prove the status of social leader of the murdered persons or that the hypothesis of death was related to their community work, the foregoing according to internationally defined standards, for which they were declared as “inconclusive” cases
The Colombian Government maintains that armed groups dedicated to drug trafficking such as the Gulf Clan, the dissidents of the demobilized guerrilla FARC and ELN, among others, they are the ones who mostly assassinate human rights defenders.
