Colombia: Three AWA Indigenous Youths Assassinated in Nariño

The National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC) Tuesday denounced the murder of three Awa indigenous youths in the Pialapi Pueblo Viejo Reservation in the Nariño Department.

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Armed Forces representatives had to walk for 12 hours to get to the crime scene and try to clarify what had happened.

The Awa Camaguari community leaders requested to President Ivan Duque’s administration more National Unit for Protection (UNP) troops to guarantee their lives and welfare.

Nariño’s Governor Jhon Rojas said his department will continue to be mired in violence as long as the action of drug cartels cannot be effectively stopped by promoting the voluntary substitution of illicit crops and fostering social investment.

On Thursday night, Cali’s Security and Justice Secretary Carlos Rojas also confirmed that the environmental activist Jaime Monge was shot dead in the Villa Carmelo town. So far, however, the perpetrators of his death have not been identified.

In that town in Valle del Cauca, Monge built a hostel and Pachamama, a foundation dedicated to environmental protection and ecotourism.

Since the signing of the Peace agreement in 2016, at least 971 Indigenous leaders, farmers, social activists, and environmental defenders have been killed, according to the Research Institute for Peace and Development (INDEPAZ).

This institution denounced that 167 peace defenders have been murdered so far this year.