On September 18th, following an attack by the ELN in the Department of Arauca, the Colombian government decided to suspend dialogue with the guerrilla group. The ELN is the oldest insurgent group in Colombia today. They have now been at war for 64 years1.
Environmental, peasant, mining, fishing, human rights, and anti-war communities, striving for a territory free from violence in the entire Magdalena Medio, urgently call upon the national government once more to implement protection measures for the civilian population and life as a whole. Tired of the war, they again demand respect for humanitarian agreements and call for #SOS #MagdalenaMedio.
In its latest report titled “Silenced Voices: Violence against Land and Environmental Defenders2,” the global organization Global Witness highlights that Colombia remains the most dangerous country for environmental leaders and defenders of land, territory, and human rights.
How much longer? The nongovernmental organization Indepaz keeps a record of the murders of social leaders and human rights defenders in Colombia: 126 so far this year. Likewise, the record of massacres in Colombia as of October 1st, 2024, is fifty. The latest of these occurred precisely in the Magdalena Medio region, in the municipality of Yondó, in the northeast of Antioquia.
Community Peacemaker Teams, and as part of the Cooperation Space for Peace in Colombia, join the call of the communities and organizations working to build peace in the Magdalena Medio. We urge government and state authorities once again to comply with the protection of those who defend land, territory, and Human Rights. We accompany and embrace our partner organizations in the territory and call for urgent and immediate action from the national government.
Today, from Colombia, but also with our hearts and prayers for our colleagues from the teams in Iraqi Kurdistan and Palestine, we pray that the war in the Middle East does not expand and that the thirst for war and the genocide perpetrated by Israel do not continue. From here, we ask for prayers so that Total Peace may reach our territories: in the Magdalena Medio, the Middle East, and the world.
- ELN Attack Destroys Chances for Peace With Strengthening Colombian Guerrilla Group. Colombia’s government has ended peace talks with the country’s largest remaining guerrilla group after a deadly attack on a military base, effectively extinguishing the prospects for a deal with the group and leaving it stronger than when the negotiations started.
- Missing voices. The violent erasure of land and environmental defenders. Global Witness Annual Defenders Report 2023/2024 | Sep 10, 2024.
