Illegal armed groups are present in 33 of the 35 municipalities within the protected areas of the Colombian Amazon, Colombia’s Institute for Development and Peace Studies (Indepaz) indicated. These include the departments of Putumayo, Caquetá, Guaviare, Guainía, Vaupés, and Amazonas, Indepaz told Diálogo on January 29.
The illegal armed groups, including the dissidents of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the National Liberation Army (ELN), and the Clan del Golfo, among others, threaten members of those communities, recruit them in their ranks, and even provide them identification to “allow” them to travel in the region and return home, Indepaz said.
Those armed groups have extorted the communities, assassinated their leaders, planted explosive devices, and even destroyed telecommunications infrastructure, the nongovernmental organization added.
They criminal groups also deny entry to park rangers, declaring them “military objectives,” in other words, if they enter these areas, they will be killed.
On January 26, the Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca reported that a group of criminals violently and illegally detained six adults and two minors living in the indigenous reservation of Paniquita, Tororó municipality. Under pressure from local authorities, the kidnap victims were released, but the motive for the abduction and the armed group that carried it out are still unknown, news site Publimetro Colombia reported on January 28.
“In Cauca department, the ELN and FARC dissident groups have recruited more than 500 mostly indigenous children since 2021,” Human Rights Watch said in its World Report 2023 on Colombia. “Members of Nasa indigenous communities who oppose abuses by armed groups are threatened and killed. Clashes between rival criminals, mainly in the municipality of Argelia, left more than 2,600 people displaced and confined.”
Violence in Cauca is mostly the result of the confrontation between FARC dissidents and the ELN, which, since 2023, seeks to control municipalities such as Totoró, Jambaló, Caldono, Santander de Quilichao, and others, daily El Colombiano reported.
Although homicides have decreased since the 2016 peace deal with the FARC, violence in some areas has shot up, as FARC dissident groups, the ELN, and the Clan del Golfo, among others, fight for control, AP reported. Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan has included peace talks and ceasefires with armed groups. In mid-January, for instance, Colombia’s government extended the ceasefire with the FARC-EMC group, set to expire, until July 15.
The strategic location of the Colombian Pacific for the illicit economies of these groups, however, makes it difficult for violence to end. “What we are seeing is a dispute over the importance of drug routes,” Andrés Preciado, director of conflict dynamics at the Ideas for Peace Foundation, told Spanish daily El País. “In addition, illicit crops have grown. It is the perfect scenario for the consolidation of the criminal economy of drug trafficking.”
According to Mongabay Latam, protecting environmental defenders, combating criminal economies, and controlling areas where illegal armed groups prevail are some of the urgent challenges for peace in Colombia. Colombia’s Ombudsman data released on January 9 indicated that 181 leaders and human rights defenders were killed in 2023.
“It is clear that we must redouble our efforts to protect human rights defenders in Colombia. We cannot allow fear and violence to silence the brave voices fighting for a more just and secure country,” said Colombia’s Ombudsman Carlos Camargo Assis. “It is the responsibility of state entities to implement plans and public policies in terms of prevention and guarantees for those who defend human rights.”