Stop Systematic Violence Against Indigenous and Black Communities in Buenos Aires and Bajo Calima

Human Rights Attache - Kristen Farrell



Sign this urgent petition to Stop Systematic Violence Against Communities in Colombia. Our Colombia team will be gathering this petition and presenting it to the U.S. Embassy next week.

WFPSC calls on the U.S. Government to stop all funding of the Colombian military and police forces, guarantee the right of social leaders and communities to defend their way of life and urge the Colombian Government to fully implement the 2016 Peace Accords

including the Ethnic Chapter.

Since January 2022, there have been 10 assassinations in the Community Council of Alsacia, Cuenca de Rio Timba and Marilopez, 2 Indigenous people were murdered, and 1 massacre against Black and Indigenous communities in Buenos Aires (Cauca). During the March Colombia Congressional Elections, leaders, candidates and communities suffered harassment and threats against their lives.

On April 7, a Judicial Commission of the Army, the National Police and the Attorney General's Office was targeted with explosive devices and gunshots. The Commission was conducting an investigation in the sector of Santa Clara (Buenos Aires, Cauca) when they were attacked. Authorities attributed the attack to FARC dissidents. The communities in this area face high levels of anxiety and risk as it is one of the most militarized departments in Colombia with state as well as paramilitary and other armed forces.

Black and Indigenous communities of the Bajo Calima (Buenaventura, Valle del Cauca) have been forcibly displaced due to confrontations between the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN) and the Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia (AGC) for control of the territory. 3 of the 10 Afro-Colombian communities that make up the Community Council and 1 Indigenous Communal Territory have been totally displaced from their territory and at least two other Afro-Colombian communities have been partially displaced.

Despite international conventions and the 2016 Accords requiring it, there has been no comprehensive actions taken to guarantee the permanence of the communities. The National Government escalates these dangers by using tens of millions received in U.S. military aid to only further militarize the region.

To: Human Rights Attache - Kristen Farrell
From: [Your Name]

Witness for Peace Solidarity Collective (WFPSC) calls for solidarity with Black Communities in the municipality of Buenos Aires (Cauca) and Bajo Calima (Buenaventura, Valle del Cauca) that are receiving direct and indirect threats from armed groups and are being forcibly displaced due to clashes between these groups.

Since January 2022, there have been 10 assassinations in the Community Council of Alsacia, Cuenca de Rio Timba and Marilopez, 2 Indigenous people were murdered, and 1 massacre against Black and Indigenous communities in Buenos Aires (Cauca). During the March Colombia Congressional Elections, leaders, candidates and communities suffered harassment and threats against their lives.

On April 7, a Judicial Commission of the Army, the National Police and the Attorney General's Office was targeted with explosive devices and gunshots. The Commission was conducting an investigation in the sector of Santa Clara (Buenos Aires, Cauca) when they were attacked. Authorities attributed the attack to FARC dissidents. he communities in this area face high levels of anxiety and risk as it is one of the most militarized departments in Colombia with state as well as paramilitary and other armed forces.

Black and Indigenous communities of the Bajo Calima (Buenaventura, Valle del Cauca) have been forcibly displaced due to confrontations between the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN) and the Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia (AGC) for control of the territory. 3 of the 10 Afro-Colombian communities that make up the Community Council and 1 Indigenous Communal Territory have been totally displaced from their territory and at least two other Afro-Colombian communities have been partially displaced.

WFPSC visited the communities that are part of the Community Council of the Lower Calima River Basin on April 9 and confirmed the forced displacement that continues without any response from the State, intensifying the process of territorial dispossession of Black and Indigenous communities. We have also learned about the installation of anti-personnel mines and the voluntary and forced recruitment of young people.

Buenos Aires and Bajo Calima are located in the departments of Cauca and Valle del Cauca, both on the Colombian Pacific coast. The location is along major drug trafficking routes due to its proximity to the Port of Buenaventura which is the most important seaport in the country including for the export of illegal narcotics to the United States. According to UNODC, in 2019, 87 percent of cocaine seizure samples in the United States originated in Colombia.

War economies and drug trafficking routes to the Pacific Sea violate and endanger communities’ way of life. In 2021 The Fundación Paz y Reconciliación (PARES) PARES denounced the reconfiguration and control of armed actors in Cauca and particularly in Northern Cauca (FARC dissidents), and also warned that in the rural area of Buenaventura, Valle del Cauca, there was a reconfiguration of disputes between actors, in several cases coming from Cauca and Chocó, bordering departments where the post-FARC armed groups, the AGC and the ELN were engaged in deadly confrontations to control more territory.

Despite international conventions and the 2016 Accords requiring it, there has been no comprehensive actions taken to guarantee the permanence of the communities. The National Government escalates these dangers by using tens of millions received in U.S. military aid to only further militarize the region.

WFPSC calls on the U.S. Government to stop all funding of the Colombian military and police forces, guarantee the right of social leaders and communities to defend their way of life and urge the Colombian Government to fully implement the 2016 Peace Accords including the Ethnic Chapter.