Colombia's Indigenous Denounce Murder of Indigenous Woman, Demand Answers From Govt

Community members in the Caldas department of Colombia denounced the murder of a 30-year-old, Indigenous woman, Azucena Vargas, saying that such acts of violence are meant to destabilize "the exercise of authority in the jurisdiction of our ancestral territories." 

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The National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC) denounced the murder of Elvia Azucena Vargas, 30 years old, who was a member of the Regional Indigenous Council in the department of Caldas, located in the central region of the South American country. 

"The indigenous authorities of the Reservation demand all the forcefulness of the competent entities so that they capture those responsible, investigate, clarify, judge and condemn the material and intellectual actors of this crime," the ONIC said on their Twitter account. 

Vargas was a resident of the Community of Portachuelo, Canamono Indigenous Reservation Lomaprieta, whose murder adds to the long list of "deaths of indigenous leaders and defenders of the collective rights of our community." 

ONIC requests the Ministry of the Interior to publically acknowledge the violence against the Indigenous people and work on "the necessary and pertinent procedures (...) to protect our community that is threatened by the repeated acts of violence." 

The organization demanded the Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos order a "forceful, truthful and timely" investigation to identify the people responsible for the act. 

ONIC asked the state government for "clarification of these events, which are part of a systematic genocide that has been taking place against the Caldas indigenous movement for years."

The group also pressed the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR) to ask the Colombian Government for "forceful investigations", condemning those responsible for other murders against indigenous people.