Translation of the petition

Ivan Duque Márquez President of the Republic Daniel Palacio Martínez Minister of the Interior Yucelly Rincón Torrado Defensoría del Pueblo Defensora Antioquia Regional Office Olga Patricia Muñoz Defensoría del pueblo Asesora de promoción y divulgación DDHH Regional Antioquia Claudia Chaparro Defensoría del Pueblo Sistema de Alertas Tempranas Antioquia Aníbal Gaviria Correa Governor of Antioquia Jhon Jairo Uribe Castrillón Mayor of Remedios Didier Alexander Osorio Mayor of Segovia Subject: Request for Urgent Action We Urge the Colombian government to:

1. Implement non-military actions that protect the civilian population and human rights organizations in the Northeast Antioquia region, seeking actions that effectively guarantee security for peace in the territory of the mining and farming communities.
2. To comply with and fully implement the Peace Agreements signed in 2016 and to generate new spaces for dialogue with the armed actors and involve the voices of the communities that resist in the midst of the conflict.
3. Provide guarantees for community leaders of Northeast Antioquia prosecuted since 2020.
4. Update the Early Warning Systems Report of the Human Rights Ombudsman’s Office No. 052-18, which has not been reviewed since June 14, 2018.
5. Comply with and fully implement the Peace Agreements signed in 2016 and protect the lives of the signatories of the agreements who live in the Territorial Spaces for Training and Rehabilitation – ETCR of Carrizal.

Presentation: I am part of the support network of Community Peacemaker Teams – CPT-, who from different parts of the world learn, observe and respond to CPT’s international calls and actions for solidarity. CPT is an international solidarity accompaniment organization that has been working in the Middle Magdalena and Northeast Antioquia regions since 2001. It has focused its work on accompanying social organizations and farming and mining communities that are victims of the armed conflict, in their exercise of promotion and defense of Human Rights, as well as in their peaceful demand to remain in their territories. As part of the CPT support network, I would like to express my concern about the escalation of violence that has been taking place in the Northeast Antioquia region and that is directly and imminently affecting the work carried out by CAHUCOPANA and putting the lives of its members at risk and members of the mining and farming communities that they accompany. Context: Northeast Antioquia (municipalities of Remedios and Segovia) 2021

1. There were nine (9) homicides of farmers, in the villages: Panama Nueve, Lejanías, San Juan de Ite, Piñal and Cañaveral Chicamoque each with one homicide. The villages of Altos de Manila and Carrizal with 2 homicides each.
2. There were fifty-one (51) homicides in Segovia and forty-nine (49) in Remedios.
3. In Segovia there were sixty (60) threats and in Remedios thirty-three (33).
4. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs-OCHA: there were 14 attacks on the civilian population and protected property, eight (8) in Segovia and six (6) in Remedios.
5. Two (2) massacres were recorded in Segovia.
6. In northeast Antioquia, the Colombian National Army committed two (2) International Humanitarian Law -IHL- infractions:
   Carrizal: where they did not respect protected assets when entering and staying for a certain time inside the school.
7. Altos de Manila: Forced detention of two (2) youths, attacking them, cutting their hair in an abusive and violent manner. These actions resulted in the displacement of the two youths.

2022

1. During the month of January the National Police registered two (2) homicides in Segovia and nine (9) in Remedios.
2. On January 27, the Remedios Police Station was attacked with explosives, causing material damage.
3. In the town of Carrizal the community have heard drones flying over, shots fired at night, suffered two (2) cases of harassment and one (1) combat between armed groups.
4. On January 24 there was an incursion by a paramilitary group in the village Cañaveral in the municipality of Remedios, they painted the walls of the houses with reference to the Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces of Colombia – AGC. There is a latent threat that this group could establish a presence in the villages further in the region where other armed groups are present.
5. The military base that is located in Carrizal and that had the objective of providing protection to the ETCR Juan Carlos Castañeda according to the Peace Agreements has lost its original purpose, and is now a center for military and intelligence operations.
6. On January 20, in the town of Carrizal, a confrontation took place between soldiers who were at the military base, belonging to the XIV Brigade of army, and an unknown armed actor, putting at risk the demobilized members of the FARC of the ETCR Juan Carlos Castañeda. Being located within the populated area, this puts the civilian population at risk. The location of this military base is a violation of International Humanitarian Law -IHL-.
7. There have been bombings, exchanges of machine gun fire and detonations in areas where the civilian population travels and could be affected by said actions.
8. On February 27, in the city of Barrancabermeja , armed men on a motorcycle fired shots at Carlos Morales, leader of CAHUCOPANA -Corporation for Humanitarian Action and Peaceful Coexistence in the Northeast of Antioquia- and his wife and son who were with him in that moment.

We call upon your offices as institutions responsible to guarantee the rights of the population and to investigate the situations presented. Cordially, the undersigned person, hoping that this request will be met. Sincerely,