We have received the terrible news that at 9:30 p.m. on the night of April 21, the murder of the social leader Narciso Beleño, president of the Federación Agrominera del sur de Bolívar, -FEDEAGROMISBOL- has been reported. In addition, we have learned that at this time the villagers are being displaced.

In the morning hours of this same day, human rights organizations issued an Urgent Alert, which we subscribe to, in which they denounced the following facts which we reproduce here translated from spanish:

URGENT ALERT!!

South Bolívar Paramilitaries of the Gulf Clan kill two villagers and kidnap a social leader - Communities of Mina Proyecto and Micoahumado at imminent risk

1. On April 18, 2024, a large group of paramilitaries belonging to the so-called “clan of the Gulf” raided the village of San Agustín - also known as Mina Proyecto in the municipality of Arenal, invaded some houses of villagers and forcibly took away a villager whose name and reasons for his kidnapping are still unknown. When night fell, the paramilitaries went to a hill known as Guaca, near the village and spent the night there.

On the morning of April 19, they raided San Agustín again, but the results of this raid are not known, since communication via WhatsApp was suspended from the day of the first raid.

2. In the afternoon of April 18, another group of paramilitaries arrived at the farm “Campo Picho” in the village of El Porvenir in the village of Micoahumado, municipality of Morales. One of them, Mr. Eneil Anzola Perilla, when he saw them, got scared and ran away, the paramilitaries shot him dead.

Two other villagers, Mr. Herney Bermúdez, president of the Community Action Board of the Los Arrayanes village in the municipality of Santa Rosa del Sur and José Humberto Anzola Medina, were forcibly taken away from the farm.

In the morning hours of April 19, a commission of villagers went to the site where Eneil Anzola was murdered and recovered his body, part of the commission went to try to locate the other two people taken by the paramilitaries, they managed to have contact with the group that was guarding them and the paramilitaries agreed to hand over Mr. Herney Bermúdez.

In the conversation they had with the person in command of the paramilitary group that returned Herney Bermúdez, he told them that they “were going to Micoahumado, that they had units in various places with orders to advance and to tell the townspeople not to move, that they were not going to interfere with the peasants, but that those who had links with the guerrillas should leave so as not to kill them”.

3. On April 20 in the morning a peasant farmer found the body of Mr. José Humberto Anzola Medina. It is presumed that he was murdered on the night of April 19. José Humberto was a farmer who lived in the village of El Porvenir.

4. On April 20, in the afternoon, a farmer who was in the village of La Guásima was approached by a group of paramilitaries who asked him where he was going and told him that they were going to Micoahumado, the man says that although the group that approached him was only 6 people, there was a lot of movement in the mountains, it is presumed that the paramilitary group is numerous.

Despite the fact that this situation has been made known directly to officials of the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of the Interior and that at least one security council has been held to analyze the situation in rural areas of Morales and Arenal del Sur, there is no evidence of actions aimed at guaranteeing the life and permanence in the territory of the communities of Micoahumado and Mina Proyecto - San Agustín.

Context

In the region there is a large presence of members of the security forces, belonging to the Marte Joint Task Force, who have been repeatedly accused of not acting forcefully against the paramilitaries and, on the contrary, seem to favor their advance and takeover of the territory.

Civilian authorities, both from the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of the Interior, have been informed for some time of the inaction of the public forces and of the way in which the paramilitaries are taking over and encircling the communities of the San Lucas mountain range. In spite of the fact that we have spoken with different officials at the highest levels of these and other governmental institutions and with the control organisms and they have committed themselves to order the troops to take actions that will allow us to recover tranquility and guarantee the right to life and permanence in the territory of the agro-mining communities, everything remains in words since the paramilitary advance is growing and is perceived as unstoppable.

Diverse social organizations in the region have insisted to the national government on the urgent need to DISMANTLE PARAMILITARISM and for this purpose take a series of decisions, among which is the replacement of the entire troop of the Joint Task Force Marte that is currently stationed in the region under the command of the First Division of the Army. Government officials are evading the issue and insist on deceptively claiming that the troops are fighting paramilitarism.

We respectfully demand the Colombian authorities:

1. Act immediately to restore tranquility, the right to life and the right to remain in the territory of the communities of the corregimientos Micoahumado and Mina Proyecto - San Agustín.
2. The dismantling of paramilitarism
3. The immediate relief of the troops assigned to the Joint Task Force Marte.
4. Form a High Level Mission to verify the events that are taking place and make immediate decisions to support and provide all the guarantees to the affected communities.

We thank you for your attention, and we will continue to follow the development of the situation,

Yours faithfully, 

• NEXUS HUMAN RIGHTS     Bélgica 
• Projet Accompagnement Solidarité Colombie    Canada
• Fundación DDHH PASOS     Colombia
• Fundación De DDHH Joel Sierra    Colombia
• Galfisa    Cuba
• AVC    Ecuador
• CPAZ DDHH    Ecuador
• Asociación Movimiento Salvadoreño de Mujeres MSM    El Salvador
• Bloque de Resistencia y Rebeldía Popular     El Salvador
• Colectivo de Derechos Humanos Herbert Anaya     El Salvador
• IMU    El Salvador
• Asociación Movimiento de Mujeres Melida Anaya Montes    El Salvador 
• Colectivo de Profesionales Consecuentes     El Salvador 
• CONPHAS    El Salvador 
• Las Melidas     El Salvador 
• Frente Social Sindical Salvadoreño    El Salvador, C. A.
• Komite Internazionalistak (País Vasco)    Espainia
• Interpueblos    España
• Barracón Digital    Honduras
• COPINH    Honduras  
• Servicios para una Educación Alternativa AC EDUCA    Oaxaca México 
• Casa Tecmilco, municipio Amatlan de Quetzalcoatl, Estado de Morelos, México
• Coordinadora Regional del Sur, Municipio Álvaro Obregón, Ciudad de México Quetzalcoatl, México
• Resonancias Radio Ciudad de México, México
• Ceibavieja    Suiza
• Le Silure    Suiza