Another Indigenous Rights Leader Killed in Colombia

Yet another human rights defender has been murdered in Colombia, adding to the list of victims of an ongoing wave of violence against activists in the country despite a landmark peace agreement that has brought an end to more than 50 years of civil war.

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According to eyewitnesses, activist Olmedo Pito Garcia was stabbed by two men who attacked him as he was walking home in the southwestern department of Cauca, one of the regions hardest hit by decades of armed conflict between government forces and guerrilla rebels. Police have ruled out the attack being linked to a robbery, but no information about the stabber's identity has been released.

This is the first case of homicide of a social leader in Cauca in the early days of 2017. Last year, a total of 16 social leaders were killed in the department, according to information provided by human rights organizations.

Harold Piamba, coordinator of the Landless Movement of Manuel Quintin’s Grandchildren of which Garcia was also a member, told Colombia's El Tiempo newspaper that Garcia was immediately taken to a hospital after the attack, where he died from severe injuries. The statement did not specify Garcia's age, but did mention that he was young.

Garcia was also a member of other social organizations, including the Human Rights Committee, the National Coordination of Indigenous People of Colombia and the Marcha Patriotica, whose members in particular have suffered systematic attacks. More than 120 Marcha Patriotica members have been murdered since the group was founded in 2012, a chilling reality that social leaders have argued is part of a new political genocide in Colombia.

Social movements have reported that paramilitary pamphlets have recently been distributed and unidentified armed agents have been sighted in the region where Garcia was killed, according to local media.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights warned in November that the increase in killings of human rights defenders in Colombia is “alarming” and also noted that many activists face reprisals, harassment and threats.

IACHR, an independent organ of the Organization of American States, also reported that at least 50 human rights defenders were killed in Colombia in 2016 alone.