Ombudsman's Office requests urgent attention for displaced families in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta

The Office of the Ombudsman asked local and national authorities for emergency attention to the nearly 300 people who were displaced in the municipality of Ciénaga, Magdalena, due to clashes between illegal armed groups that have occurred since last Friday, April 15.

While the celebration of Holy Week was taking place in the national territory, the inhabitants of the district of Siberia; the village of La Secreta; and the sectors of El Centro, El Guacamayo, San Martín, La Aguja and Quebrada de los Perros, in the middle of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, abandoned their homes, belongings and animals, due to the fighting between the Gulf Clan and Los Pachenca, residual armed groups of the paramilitaries.

“Since we became aware of the fact, we have been in contact with communities to verify and promote the care they should receive. They are people with many needs who had to leave their homes and who require shelter, food and, of course, security,” said Ombudsman Carlos Camargo.

The official also requested that a Territorial Committee of Extraordinary Transitional Justice be convened to assess the security situation in this region, which has been severely affected by the various armed groups and is currently the scene of dispute between residual paramilitary groups seeking the control of illegal rents and the strategic corridor.

Likewise, the Ombudsman assured that through this committee, a diagnosis of the confinement of the inhabitants and the possibility of carrying out a humanitarian mission to the affected community in order to provide the necessary care and make an institutional presence, a task that has been required by the inhabitants of the Sierra for decades.

“Since 2019, the Office of the Ombudsman had issued Early Warning 044, in which it was warned that such an event could happen,” said the entity that stated in the alert that “the threat context is determined by the actions of illegal armed groups such as the AGC and illegal armed structures such as the Caribbean Office and Los Pachenca, Spain. There are various forms of relationship between these and thus also dispute scenarios”.

The alert warned that the affected population included: Adolescents; Afro-descendants; Ethnic Government Authorities; Peasants; Traders; Human Rights Defenders, Social Leaders; Teachers; Indigenous People; Youth; Women; Boys and Girls; Persons with Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Miscellaneous; Journalists; Migrant population; Public servants; Transporters; Victims of the armed conflict; Members of Community Action Boards; Socially stigmatized population.

The mayor of Ciénaga, Luis Alberto Tete Samper, explained to W Radio that they communicated with both the brigade and with Commander Zapateiro himself, who received the communication, but did not report any action.

According to Tete Samper, there is growing concern about the possibility that this conflict will coalesce and generate greater problems. Faced with this, he said: “The responsibility in this area is the total responsibility of the National Army, here we have a high mountain battalion; that is the concern and the unknown that we are all doing, because we already have it we had announced to the commander of the high mountain battalion, even General Zapateiro made him see that situation, everything when these armed groups were entering, the commander of the Brigade was also informed.”

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