JEP says Santander is the most dangerous department for environmental defenders

The Investigation and Prosecution Unit (UIA) of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) warned on Friday about the increase in death threats against environmental leaders in Santander and the expansion of the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrilla in this department and in Cesar.

According to the transitional jurisdiction since the signing of the Final Peace Agreement, “Santander was constituted as the department where the highest number of death threats have been filed against persons exercising an environmental leadership role”.

The Unit's report reported that between 2017 and March 2022, “seven global events of threats to environmental leaders have been recorded, affecting 49 leaders of the department.”

The JEP warned on April 8 that most threats against environmental leaders are attributed to groups that are successors of paramilitarism, such as the Gulf Clan and the self-described Black Eagles, which, “through pamphlets have been responsible for frightening people who defend the territories and have opposed the realization of extractive projects”.

You may be interested in: 'Fracking' and human rights, the topics of conversation between Colombian environmentalist and Emmanuel Macron

The director of the UIA, Giovanni Álvarez, stressed that “this phenomenon of intimidation constitutes a breach of guarantees of non-repetition, as different social organizations in the department of Santander have submitted reports to the JEP documenting acts of victimization of trade unionists, environmental leaders and citizens who publicly opposed the environmental impact of the extractive industry in Santander”.

In Indepaz's follow-up to victimizing acts against social leaders, it records that since the signing of the Final Peace Agreement in 2016 until September 2021, 611 environmental defenders have been killed in Colombia. Of these, 332 are indigenous people, 75 of African descent members of community councils protecting the territory, 102 were peasants defending the territory, while 25 were environmental leaders and 77 peasants were members of Community Action Boards.

The municipalities in Santander where there are most threats against environmental leaders are Barrancabermeja, Puerto Wilches and Puerto Parra. Specifically in Barrancabermeja, the Regional Corporation for the Defence of Human Rights has drawn attention to “the intimidation against Óscar Sampayo, an environmental leader who has constantly denounced the negative consequences of the extractive projects currently being carried out in the middle magdalena”.

For its part, in Puerto Wilches, the Colombia Free Fracking Alliance “denounced that one of the leaders who are part of the collective, Yuvelis Natalia Morales, had to leave the country forcibly because she has received constant threats.” In 2021 Morales had been intimidated after her speech at the Congress of the Republic in a hearing on fracking.

Another alert issued by the peace court was regarding the expansion of the ELN in towns of Santander and Cesar. On this point, the investigation pointed out that, “this guerrilla has deployed a strategy of coping and recovering historic areas of the rear.”

At Cesar, the ELN “has registered a continuous presence in the municipalities of Aguachica, Rio de Oro, Pelaya and La Gloria, through the 'Camilo Torres Restrepo' and 'Luis José Solano Sepúlveda fronts, 'concluded the justice of the peace.

Regarding this department, the UIA also warned about the entry of groups that are successors to paramilitarism in the south of the department “there has been evidence of the resurgence of repertoires of violence that were previously used by the Northern Bloc of the former AUC and the Peasant Self-Defense Forces of the South of Cesar”.

KEEP READING: