Colombia: Extermination of Indigenous Peoples Denounced

The Awá indigenous community in Colombia denounced this Thursday that extermination acts are being committed against its population due to the increase of assassinations by armed groups.

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Representatives of the native people denounced the increased aggression against leaders, authorities, and community members by armed gangs linked to drug trafficking in a press conference.

They have also accused the governmental authorities of inaction in the face of these violent events. The representatives of the indigenous peoples considered that the Colombian State had left them alone and described it as an accomplice of systematic extermination.

They said that the indigenous communities had not noticed the results of the Peace Agreement signed in 2016, assuring that they have already gone to the different institutional levels to demand their right to life.

The SOS of the Awá indigenous community after the murder of one of its leaders: "Don't leave us alone."

In this regard, around 350 victimizing events have been counted against the Awá people, of which 95 correspond to murders of important indigenous rights activists.

In turn, the Indigenous Unit of the Awá people (Unipa) said that "the violations of fundamental rights deepened during and after the pandemic; facts that remain in total impunity due to the lack of progress in investigations by the competent entities."

The last recorded massacre occurred on July 3, when the alternate governor of the Inda Sabaleta Resguardo, Juan Orlando Moriano, was killed along with two young members of the Awá indigenous guard.