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Amnesty International Report 2017/18

movement and access to essential services 

and food), the forced recruitment of children, 

sexual violence, and the use of anti-

personnel mines.

Despite the signing of the Peace 

Agreement, the armed conflict intensified in 

some areas of Colombia as a result of armed 

confrontations between ELN guerrillas, 

paramilitary groups and state forces seeking 

to fill the power vacuum left by the 

demobilized FARC guerrillas. On 27 

November, 13 people were killed as a result 

of a confrontation between FARC dissidents 

and ELN members in Magüí Payán Nariño 

department. There were complaints about 

the weak state presence in areas that were 

historically controlled by the FARC, which 

facilitated incursions and control by other 

illegal armed groups, putting Afro-

descendant and peasant farmer communities 

and Indigenous Peoples at risk.

Paramilitary structures continued to operate 

in various parts of the country, despite their 

supposed demobilization under the terms of 

Law 975, passed in 2005. There were reports 

of paramilitary attacks and threats against 

leaders of the Peace Community of San José 

de Apartadó in the department of Antioquia.

1

 

On 29 December, armed men attempted to 

kill Germán Graciano Posso, the legal 

representative of the community. Other 

community members disarmed them, but 

were injured in the process.

 

The Peace 

Community had sought to distance itself from 

the armed conflict by formally refusing to 

allow state security forces, guerrilla groups or 

paramilitary groups to enter their territory. 

Despite their efforts to remain neutral, people 

living in San José de Apartadó continued to 

be victims of attacks, torture, sexual abuse 

and forced displacement at the hands of all 

parties to the conflict.

There were reports of paramilitary 

incursions in the department of Chocó, in 

northwestern Colombia, particularly affecting 

Afro-descendant communities and 

Indigenous Peoples. On 8 February, a group 

of paramilitaries belonging to the Gaitanista 

Self-Defence Forces entered the 

Humanitarian Zone of Nueva Esperanza en 

Dios, in the Cacarica River Basin, department 

of Chocó, searching for several people said to 

be on a “death list”.

2

 On 6 March, a 

paramilitary incursion was reported in the 

town of Peña Azul, municipality of Alto 

Baudó, Chocó, which resulted in the large-

scale displacement of families and the forced 

confinement of many people within their 

communities near Peña Azul.

3

 On 18 April, 

residents of Puerto Lleras in the Jiguamiandó 

collective territory, Chocó, reported that they 

had received threats and that there had been 

a paramilitary incursion into the 

Humanitarian Zone of Pueblo Nuevo that put 

all the inhabitants at risk.

4

Indigenous Peoples and Afro-Colombian 

communities continued to be at risk from 

anti-personnel mines on their territory; the 

laying of such mines is a grave violation of 

international humanitarian law. On 11 July, 

Sebastián Carpio Maheche, from the 

Wounaan Indigenous community of Juuin 

Duur in the Embera Wounaan Katio de 

Quiparadó Reserve in the municipality of 

Riosucio, Chocó, was injured by an exploding 

anti-personnel mine.

5

Clashes between ELN guerrillas, the security 

forces and paramilitary groups put 

Indigenous Peoples and Afro-Colombian 

communities at serious risk.

6

 

According to the 

National Indigenous Organization of 

Colombia, between 1 November 2016 and 

31 July 2017, 3,490 Indigenous people were 

victims of mass forced displacements, 827 

were subjected to forced confinement, 115 

received threats and 30 were killed, including 

community leaders.

The ELN abducted two Dutch journalists on 

19 June in the area of El Tarra, Norte de 

Santander. Both were released on 24 June. 

According to the Office of the 

Ombudsperson, hostage-taking by ELN 

guerrillas continued.

REPARATION FOR VICTIMS

Point 5 of the Peace Agreement created the 

“Truth, Justice, Reparation and Non-

repetition System”, which included the 

Special Jurisdiction for Peace and judicial 

mechanisms such as a unit for investigating 

and dismantling the criminal organizations 

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Amnesty International Report 2017/18

133

that succeeded paramilitarism. Point 5 also 

defined the position regarding reparations for 

the victims of the armed conflict. In this 

context, victims of the armed conflict 

demanded guarantees of access to justice, as 

well as guarantees of the right to truth and 

reparation and, especially, of non-repetition 

of abuses such as forced displacement and 

sexual violence, for Indigenous, Afro-

descendant and peasant farmer communities 

at risk. These demands had yet to be met, 

and the long-term viability of the Peace 

Agreement was threatened due to the 

perpetrators of crimes under international 

law, including war crimes, crimes against 

humanity and human rights abuses not being 

brought to justice.

In April Legislative Act No.1 of 2017 was 

adopted, to ensure Congress would pass 

legislation implementing Point 5 of the Peace 

Agreement. One of its provisions provided for 

the separate – and privileged – treatment of 

state agents before the law, to the detriment 

of the rights of victims of crimes by the state 

in the context of the armed conflict. The law 

also provided for the possibility that the state 

would not pursue criminal prosecutions in 

certain cases – although how this would be 

implemented was not clear – potentially 

breaching the obligation of the state to 

investigate, prosecute and punish grave 

violations of human rights, undermining the 

rights of victims to truth and full reparation. 

On 27 November, Congress approved the 

Special Jurisdiction for Peace.

POLICE AND SECURITY FORCES

There were allegations of deliberate killings 

by state forces and allegations of excessive 

use of force by the Mobile Anti-Riot Squad 

(ESMAD) during protests in Chocó, Valle del 

Cauca, Cauca and Catatumbo.

Inhabitants of Buenaventura on the Pacific 

coast reported police repression of peaceful 

demonstrations which were part of the “Civic 

Strike” declared on 16 May to demand that 

the Colombian government guarantee 

economic, social and cultural rights and the 

right of the city’s inhabitants to participate in 

the implementation of the Peace Agreement 

with the FARC. Police, army and navy officers 

were present in the area. Protesters reported 

that tear gas was used against peaceful 

demonstrators. The Ombudsperson reported 

that approximately 205 children as well as 10 

pregnant women and 19 elderly people 

suffered health complications as a result. In 

total, health problems as a result of exposure 

to tear gas were reported by 313 people, and 

16 people sustained gunshot injuries or 

trauma from blunt objects. The “Civic Strike” 

ended on 7 June.

One Indigenous man, Felipe Castro Basto, 

was reported to have died in the municipality 

of Corinto, in the North of Cauca, when 

ESMAD opened fire on a demonstration by 

200 Indigenous people.

The Association of Community Councils 

Mira, Nulpe and Mataje (Asominuma) 

reported that, on 5 October, security forces 

killed nine peasant farmers by 

indiscriminately firing at a peaceful 

demonstration in Tumaco (Nariño).

HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS

Human rights defenders continued to be the 

victims of threats and targeted killings. The 

Office of the UN High Commissioner for 

Human Rights reported that at least 105 

human rights defenders were killed in 

Colombia during the year. There was 

continuing concern over the increase in the 

number of attacks against defenders, 

especially community leaders; defenders of 

land, territory and the environment; and 

those campaigning in favour of the signing of 

the Final Agreement with the FARC. There 

continued to be an alarming rate of attacks 

against defenders of the rights of Indigenous 

and Afro-descendant people, peasant 

farmers and women, calling into question the 

implementation of the Peace Agreement.

According to the organization Somos 

Defensores, the number of killings of 

defenders increased by 31% in the first half 

of the year compared to the same period in 

2016. The killings of women exercising any 

kind of leadership role increased compared 

to 2016, with seven such killings occurring in 

the first six months of 2017. 

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