_{Photo: performance for the International Dance Day (by Moses Sawasawa from the Kokoriko Foundation Facebook page)}

The Democratic Republic of Congo is a huge country in the middle of the African continent. The region presents a great abundance of natural resources, especially minerals, diamonds, and wood. Over the last three decades, conflicts involving armed groups and foreign actors have been mutilating the country, in particular the Eastern side.

Francis Mulindwa Zihindula is a 27-year-old activist who lives in Goma, in the eye of the hurricane. He is a fair example of how people’s movements for peace and justice can rise from the ashes.

I’m an artist, a dancer, and a performer. I started by imitating Michael Jackson when I was a child. Then, taught myself how to dance hip-hop and created my dance team to learn together. As a teenager I moved to Uganda, our neighbour country, and lived there for three years. There I started to speak the English. While I’m currently dedicating to contemporary dance, I’m also the founder of the Kokoriko foundation.

Kokoriko was born in 2019, with the idea bubbling up in Francis’s mind for many years before, because he felt miserable for the suffering he experienced every single day.

I was looking for a way to support my people. Now we try to help children and people who lost their loved ones because of the war forget about their traumas and live more serene. These children don’t have a mother, don’t have a father, they’re abandoned. We’re the only ones who can help them grow happily.

At present the foundation has gathered about fifty children and teenagers. They live together and spend their days learning new skills, with a special focus on the performative arts. The management and organization are run by nine volunteers – the eldest is more than 80 years old.

We all do what we can…” says Francis with a crack in his voice. “Our country is big, blessed with mineral resources, but its people cannot benefit from them. There are many groups, foreigner and internal; armed groups, which take advantage of all this richness. Our cities, our villages, are in the middle of the conflicts. We don’t have anything, no possessions at all. We’d need mattresses, shoes, clothes. Thanks to some fund raising we can afford food and water. But we never have enough.

Francis laments the lack of help from the government and the numerous non-profit organizations which land there to support the citizens.

Politicians speak, but don’t do. Also, there are a lot of non-profit organizations, big ones too, but it seems like they don’t really do what they can and maybe just think about their propagandas and how foreign people see them.

The cities in Eastern Congo Democratic Republic are collapsing, the people are worn out. Nevertheless, there is always a spark that, when ignited, can bring a bright, relieving light.

As to the monetary support or provision of supplies, unfortunately the situation is complex. No matter what, we will continue to dedicate our lives to these people who have lost everyone and everything. We don’t have material possessions, but we have each other. And thanks to art, music, dance, we can forget for some time all the death and sufferance we see every day. I’d like to say a heartfelt “thank you” to all the people who decide to help us. Our country is a beautiful country, but there is no justice or peace. We’re one world – my problems are also yours and viceversa. I’d do my utmost to help you. What about you?

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Kokoriko Foundation Facebook page

Kokoriko Foundation Instagram page

La entrada Dancing through the war se publicó primero en Contagio Radio.

_{Gustavo Petro, new President of Colombia, shown by big screens in Plaza de Bolívar, Bogotá. (The Associated Press)}

Colombia welcomes its first left-wing President in history.

On August 7 2022 – in the middle of the celebrations for Bogotá’s 484^th foundation anniversary – the newly-elected President Gustavo Francisco Petro Urrego has sworn in. And it’s already made history.

The very presence of thousands of people come in crowds in Plaza de Bolívar, watched by its Palace of Justice, the Congress, Bogotá’s City Hall, and the Primary Cathedral of Bogotá, with thousands more swarmed in the parks and squares surrounding the city centre, where big screens were installed for the people to attend virtually. This was the first remarkable sign of the coming revolutionary era in Colombian political history.

Gustavo Petro’s life is filled with memorable actions. Since he was very young, his desire of a structural change and his justice hunger led him to fight in different scenarios. Among others, during the early-90s uprising and the Ceasefire Agreement between the Colombian Government and the M-19 Guerrilla group. In this occasion, Petro stepped into the world of politics, where he was elected for the Congress over many consecutive periods. From his position, he made several denunciations against the statal violence and the land dispossesions in wartime. His debating in the Colombian Parliament has aimed at fighting against impunity and inequity. Consequently, he conquered the support of the people and was elected as mayor of Bogotá in 2012.

Eventually, “sí, se pudo!” – yes, it was possible – Petro’s supporters have chanted over these last months following the elections. “We are here against all odds” said Gustavo Petro in his first speech, “against a history which had claimed we would never govern, … against those who did not want to let go of power. But we did it. We made the impossible possible.”

Alongside Petro, Francia Márquez is now Colombia’s first black vice-president. Hailing from the poor and violent south-west of the country – the Cauca region – she became an environmental activist at just 13. Since, she’s always been followed by her people, by her women, holding her ideals high. In particular in her battle against illegal gold mining in her region from 2014, thus being awarded the prestigious Goldman Prize in 2018.

During his speech, Petro staked his all on redeeming Colombia’s violent history of bloodshed and abductions. Even more, his focus was on the people, those who believed in him and his group. Furthermore, he aims at enhancing the government’s efforts on handling drug production and consumption, battling corruption, and safeguarding the environment.

In his final decalogue, he also promised to stand by the Constitution and the Law; to take care of the weak, the elderly, the discriminated. “This will be a government with open doors to all who want to dialogue for Colombia”, he reassured. A whole new approach to culture and public education is a staple in his program, to achieve equality and inclusion.

“To harmonize our lives, unite our peoples, heal humanity, feeling the people’s pain … this all may flow in your veins, in your heart, and may become acts of forgiveness and world reconciliation; but, first, this shall happen in our hearts”. Gustavo Petro shared as a witness the words of an Arhuaco girl during the Ancestral Inauguration Ceremony in the Sierra Nevada.

“This second chance is for her, and for all the children of Colombia” Petro concluded. Ablaze with his people’s hope for a brighter and fairer future.

Le podría interesar: Así será la «llegada del Pueblo» a la Casa de Nariño este 7 de Agosto

La entrada “Today begins our second chance” se publicó primero en Contagio Radio.

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Mario Montoya Uribe, former commander of the National Army, will testify on the “false positives” scandal before the Special Peace Jurisdiction (JEP) on February 12, 2020, the transitional justice system recently announced.

According to the Attorney General’s Office, Uribe is investigated for the extrajudicial killings of Daniel Pesca Olaya, Eduardo Garzon Paez and Fair Leonardo Porras, who lived in Soacha. Human Rights Watch previously reported that at least 2,500 civilians were killed during his time as Army commander, from 2006 to 2008.

Montoya will also answer questions about human rights violations committed during Operation Orion in 2002, which left at least 100 people disappeared. Montoya led this operative in the Comuna 13 of Medellín.

The JEP has received 202 testimonies to date — 162 oral and 40 written — in the 003 case, which opens an investigation into the false positive cases. At least 11 testimonies have mentioned the former general’s roles in these crimes.

Other high-ranking officials have already testified, the JEP added, including retired General Paulino Coronado, former commander of the 30th Brigade, General Miguel David Bastidas, former second-in-command of the Artillery Battalion No. 4 and retired general Henry Torres Escalante, former commander of the 16th Brigade.

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While the House of Representatives quietly passed President Iván Duque’s tax reform bill early Friday morning, the Senate also approved the promotions of 40 Armed Forces members, three of which are implicated in human rights violations such as extrajudicial killings known commonly in Colombia as «false positives.»

According to the lawyer Diana Salamanca, of the National Movement of Victims of State Crime (MOVICE), the Senate’s decision ignored warnings and information compiled by various human rights organizations that show evidence of these military men’s supposed criminal actions. Their promotions, Salamanca said, violate the victims’ rights to non-repetition.

The general Juan Carlos Ramírez is investigated for nine criminal offenses, including homicide of a protected person, judicial resolution fraud, influence peddling and the falsification of a public document, according to the Attorney General’s Office. MOVICE claimed at least 16 extrajudicial killings were committed by the general Sergio Alberto Tafur’s subordinates.

The then general Hernando Garzón Rey is also mentioned in an extrajudicial killing case. It’s also known that the captain Maritza Soto filed a report in the Inspector General’s Office, accusing Garzón of workplace and sexual harassment. The captain also said she denounced the alleged crimes to the head of the Rapid Deployment Force’s Chiefs of Staff, the commander of the Volcano Task Force, the commander of the Second Division and the commander of the Army, but received no support.

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La entrada Senate approved promotions of military men investigated for ‘false positives’ se publicó primero en Contagio Radio.

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A new government-backed bill that revives the congressional seats allocated for victims of the armed conflict is provoking hard criticism from supporters of the peace deal. Instead of creating new vacancies in Congress as is stipulated in the 2016 accord, the victims would take seats voluntarily forfeited by political parties, according to the proposal.

In 2017, the Senate sank a bill that created 16 seats for the victims in a controversial vote that was challenged by then-President Juan Manuel Santos. With 50 votes in favor and only seven against, the bill received majority approval, argued the president, because three senators of the 102 were ineligible to vote. This debate is currently under revision by the State Council. 

The original bill indicated that those who were candidates to the seats — which would exist during the legislative periods of 2018-2022 and 2022-2026 — should be nominated by legally recognized victims’ organizations, peasant associations and organizations subject to collective reparations that had been created before December 1, 2016, and that demonstrated a history of work with or in favor of victims.

The 16 seats would be distributed among Bolívar, Cesar, Córdoba, Arauca, Antioquia, Cauca, Caquetá, Chocó, Meta, Nariño Norte de Santander, Putumayo and Tolima, provinces of the country that had been most hard hit by the armed conflict. 

According to the former Minister of the Interior Juan Fernando Cristo, the seats were approved by the Senate in December 2017 and later supported by a decision of the Constitutional Court, which currently studies a writ for protection of fundamental rights brought forward by Senator Roy Barreras, who requested that the “rights to equality, due process, and political participation, violated by Directive Table of the Senate of the Republic” be protected.

The seats that President Duque proposes

President Iván Duque has now proposed an initiative that seeks to create these seats «without generating more space, more budget costs and that there be generosity and nobility from all the political forces,» that is, the bill established these spaces for the victims without creating 16 new seats but rather to recompose the floor of the House of Representatives.

Senator Ernesto Macías showed support for the bill, adding that the seats should be guaranteed for what he considers are the «real victims,» or those that have been certified and are considered a priority because they were victims of the FARC, military or the police. Critics have said this discriminates against the people who have lived the armed conflict.

According to Senator Barreras, the bill «restricts established rights in the peace deal and ignores the concept of the integral reparations of the territories,» emphasizing that Congress, the Constitutional Court, and the Supreme Court of Justice already approved the seats.

«The government seems to be walking blindly on these issues and is not well informed of what happens with the implementation of the peace deal. The transitory seats of peace were approved by a legislative act two years ago,» said Cristo.

Victims’ representatives, such as Martha Aguirre, president of the foundation Sonrisas de Colores and a representative of the family members of victims of the massacre of councilpeople in Rivera, Huila, said that this is the minimum that the government and Congress can give the victims. «We can’t keep talking about the peace deal and the conflict without taking into consideration our participation and above all else, without political representation.»

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La entrada Duque’s bill for victims’ congressional seats ignores peace deal se publicó primero en Contagio Radio.

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This weekend, the Special Peace Jurisdiction (JEP) announced the discovery of a mass grave where at least 50 victims of extrajudicial killings were found in the Las Mercedes Cemetery in Dabeiba, Antioquia. In an interview with Contagio Radio, Adriana Arboleda, director of the Judicial Liberty Corporation and spokesperson for the Movement of Victims of State Crimes (Movice), explained how this discovery came about and why these cemeteries must be protected in order to prevent the destruction of evidence.

Contagio Radio: How was the JEP able to intervene the cemetery in Dabeiba?

Adriana Arboleda: It was two things: First, the JEP opened Case 003, which involves states agents responsible for “Deaths illegitimately presented as combat kills by agents of the state.” Then, MOVICE requested precautionary measures on August 30, 2018 that we then asked be amplified this year to include cemeteries located in the municipality of Dabeiba, in western Antioquia. Both things came together because within Case 003, one of the state agents that appeared before the JEP said he had participated in an extrajudicial killing and that many of the victims had been buried in the cemetery in Dabeiba, which coincided with information that MOVICE had presented. This is what caused the JEP to intervene in this place to corroborate the information and to advance in the identification of the cases. 

CR: In interviews with communities in Dabeiba, they have said that there are other areas where there also disappeared buried. Has MOVICE identified these areas?

AA: What they say is completely true. In fact, in the request we presented we are talking about other cemeteries. In the town, near the Catholic cemetery Las Mercedes, is a cemetery administered by the Presbyterian Church that we don’t know if it could have been used, due to its proximity, by the military men. There’s also the cemetery in the rural area of El Salado and above all else, there are three areas, Camparrusia, San José de Urama and Balsita, that we’re interested in.

The Judicial Liberty Corporation, the MOVICE and the Interchurch Justice and Peace Commission have denounced on various occasions that these places were areas where people were murdered and presented as combat kills or people were disappeared. That’s why we believe that these three areas are fundamental to intervene.

These places need to be protected to prevent that they be intervened or manipulated, which appears to be the case in the cemetery of Las Mercedes. We don’t think it’s just the cemetery located in the town, but also the Cañón de La Llorona, even other nearby municipalities, because this was a corridor in which paramilitaries operated. In fact, when we went to the cemetery in Las Mercedes there were testimonies of paramilitary members between 1996 and 1998 that said that they buried their victims there. But different battalions have also operated in this area, such as the First Division, the Seventh Division of the 17th Brigade.

In this area, there have been more than 300 victims of forced disappearances, so it’s very important what the locals indicate that the intervention must be integral, and this cemetery should be looked at as well as a series of other places.

CR: What does the findings in the cemetery in Las Mercedes say about how the false positive cases were carried out in the country?

AA: There are different types of victims. There are direct victims of forced disappearances, that is, people of the region who were detained arbitrarily, who were subtracted from the protection of the law, hidden, assassinated and surely, taken to these cemeteries. There are also victims of combatants, who were executed when they were defenseless and were taken to these places, that is, that they were no attacked during combat but rather when they were killed once they were captured without a trial nor any protection, which is a clear violation of international humanitarian law. Lastly, there are cases of extrajudicial killings that according to the witnesses, and at least the military man that is offering information on Las Mercedes, correspond to people who were recruited in Medellín, were taken and assassinated in the rural areas of Dabeiba and buried there. 

But we also have cases of people who are from the region, such as La Balsita, San José de Urama and Santa Rita, who were assassinated and also presented as combat kills. We have a series of victims, which are important to look into and to implicate the responsibility of paramilitary groups that acted in collusion with the Armed Forces, and acts committed directly by state agents. In this case, executions.

CR: There are other places in Colombia, such as Ituango and the Comuna 13 where people say there are disappeared. Which places should be examined to find the disappeared?

AA: MOVICE has presented a request to search 17 places in five provinces. In the case of Antioquia, there is the Comuna 13, the Universal Cemetery, the cemeteries that are being affected by Hidroituango, the cemetery of Puerto Berrío. Recently, we left a hearing on the cemeteries of San Onofre and Rincón del Mar in Sucre. We have requested that cemeteries in Caldas and in Santander be searched. But I think it’s important now for the Search Unit for Disappeared Persons, along with the JEP, should design a model of intervention in the cemeteries in the areas where the armed conflict existed or in the areas where we have reported places where there are many victims of forced disappearances or extrajudicial killings.

It’s important to cross-check information and to guarantee the protection of these areas. There is now a «boom» over the cemetery of Dabeiba, but there is an urgent need to design a plan of action to prevent that these places where there are victims of extrajudicial killings and forced disappeareances be altered because the evidence that we have in the cemetery of Dabeiba was altered, possibly by military men. Consequently, the National Search Plan, designed by the Search Unit for Disappearead Persons, must define a protection protocol for all these places.

CR: What do you mean when you say military men possibly altered this cemetery?

AA: Last week when we were at judicial hearings, the same military man who offered information said when he arrived at the cemetery, it wasn’t the same way he last saw it in 2006 and 2007. Apparently, the crosses were facing another direction because when he was last there they faced south and now they faced east. We realized that the crosses were painted white in the same handwriting. All appeared as deaths from the years 1972 to 1974 and all the crosses in these places are in the same place or close to where the military man said the victims had been buried or places where there is information that paramilitaries buried victims.

Later, when we inquired, we were told that two years ago military men arrived to organize the cemetery. That they had fixed it up, that they had painted it. We think that is an issue that should be investigated because we think that the military could have removed bodies as a way to guarantee impunity.

CR: How many people could be buried in the places MOVICE requested be protected and searched?

It’s difficult to say, but in the Comuna 13 we have a list of close to 300 victims. In Dabeiba, we have close to 100 victims reported. It’s very complicated and difficult to commit to one number. That is, we have more than 80,000 victims of forced disappearances in this country, and what we need to do now is to focus on the cross-checking of information. I insist that it is important to see how the Search Unit coordinates this action because one of the realities in Colombia is that we don’t have a consensus yet on the number of the victims.

Even in the case of Dabeiba, or that of San Onofre or other places, many of the cases appear as unidentified people, so the real challenge is enormous, but what is encouraging is that we have started to take steps and to clarify certain things that will allow  us to guarantee the rights of the victims to know the truth and that at some moment, return the bodies of the disappeared to their families.

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La entrada The cemetery where 50 victims of extrajudicial killings were found se publicó primero en Contagio Radio.

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As of yesterday, December 12, Colombia joined the Escazú Accord, according to an announcement made by President Iván Duque. The accord has been signed by more than 21 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean and seeks to strengthen security protocols to protect the environment and its defenders.

The agreement requires states to guarantee public access to environmental information, environmental justice, communities’ public participation in environmental policy debates, and the protection of environmental defenders.

Colombia joins countries such as Bolivia, Guyana, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Uruguay, and Saint Kitts and Nevis as signees of the agreements. At least 11 more countries need to ratify the agreement for it to have an obligatory character.

The biggest challenge is the implementation of the agreement

Environmental leaders halted negotiations with the Duque administration during talks to end the national strike, arguing that the government refused to concede on certain points such as the protection of the Páramo de Santurbán and the ban of pilot fracking projects. They acknowledged that this move to join the international deal was a positive step forward.

«This is a step toward access to information and the improvement of participation processes and environmental justice. However, in Colombia one of the greatest problems is that we sign agreements that are executed in an intermittent way,» said Diana Giraldo, member of the Ríos Vivos Movement.

According to the 2019 report of the organization Somos Defensores, 805 aggressions against social leaders were reported, of which 155 were assassinations. Sixty-three of these correspond to deaths of environmental leaders that worked toward the coca crop substitution, the defense of ancestral lands, native seeds, springs of water and the conservation of forests.

Colombia is also the second country with the most environmental leaders assassinated in the world, according to a 2018 report from the Irish organization Global Witness. The organization found 83 people were killed in Colombia, at least half of the total number of those assassinated in the world.

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La entrada Colombia signs on to the Escazú Agreement. What’s next? se publicó primero en Contagio Radio.

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Colombia has made significant advances in the investigation of war crimes and crimes against humanity, especially those related to the creation of and support for paramilitary groups, said the International Criminal Court (ICC) in its latest annual report.

The ICC has had Colombia under preliminary examination since 2004 to determine whether the Andean country has complied with international law to investigate and try human rights abuses. The 2019 report highlights the work of the Special Peace Jurisdiction (JEP) this year as well as advances made in cases related to extrajudicial killings and crimes committed by paramilitary groups.

According to the Court, some 9,713 former FARC members, 2,291 members of the Armed Forces and 63 third parties (or non-state agents) have committed to participate in the transitional justice system. The ICC highlighted that the JEP has decided to prioritize seven macro cases,  acknowledging, in particular, those that investigate crimes committed in the war-torn provinces of Nariño, Urabá and Cauca.

The report also applauded the entry of David Char Navas and Álvaro Ashton’s cases into the JEP, which are considered crucial to understanding the relationship between politicians and paramilitary groups during the armed conflict in the northern part of Colombia.

The ICC also examined the progress the ordinary justice system has made in trials against paramilitary groups and their supporters. The Court noted that the Attorney General’s Office is investigating 1,253 cases against civilians or businesspeople and 794 against state agents for crimes related to the development, support or financing of these groups as of October.

The ordinary justice system took important steps in judicial processes against executives and employees of the multinational Chiquita Brands, charged in 2018 of the crime of conspiracy. They are suspected of financing the Arlex Hurtado Front. The Court referenced the cases related to the Calima Bloque, which have resulted in imprisonment without bail for two people and an inquiry for another three.

More than 10,000 people have been investigated for extrajudicial killings

The ordinary justice system has started investigations in five potential cases on extrajudicial killings against the First, Second, Fourth, Fifth and Seventh Divisions of the Army. Despite reports that claim there could be more than 10,000 victims of these crimes, the Attorney General’s Office only reported 2,268 active cases that involve 3,876 victims.

According to the ICC, 10,742 people have been investigated for these crimes. Meanwhile, only 1,749 have been convicted. Additionally, a total of 20 generals, 182 cornels and 143 commanders are currently under investigation.

Despite these advances, the Court said it would continue its evaluations of these judicial processes in the ordinary justice system, the Special Peace Jurisdiction and the jurisdiction of the Justice and Peace Law. The Court added that their preliminary evaluation of Colombia will end in 2020.

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La entrada International Criminal Court releases new report on Colombia se publicó primero en Contagio Radio.

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Amidst weeks of violent repression from riot control police during street demonstrations, protesters have launched what they call the Front Line, a form of self-defense and peaceful resistance to protect citizens from acts of police brutality that have resulted in more than 300 people wounded and the death of Dilan Cruz.

The Front Line is modeled after a self-defense team that was created in Chile to respond to the violent actions of the national police force. The close to 70 people that make up the Front Line stand in strategic areas of the demonstrations to prevent bullets or tear gas, shot by police, from affecting the rest of the citizenry. One of the members of this initiative in Colombia said they reject any violence. 

“We are in charge of protecting the people, but we also look to inspire them to no run away every time the riot control police attack us,” said Nao, who preferred to remain anonymous.

Some members of the Front Line use shields to protect the protesters. Others serve as «firefighters» to extinguish the flames and nurses to attend those wounded. «It’s important that the people know in the demonstration of December 4 that the people can march safely, that they can feel at ease. We are not going to win with force because we are not the military or the police. We are students and we will win with intelligence,» Nao said.

The student added that they seek to keep the marches peaceful because the strike will be more successful «if the marches continue with their objective, but if they are also safe and everyone can go back home after participating.» Nao said that the First Line is not affiliated with any political party, but they support the objectives of the strike to pressure the government into repealing bad policies in terms of education, employment, health and human rights.»

«We won’t win against the riot control police with force. There is a media war that we also want to win, and we are going to do that by protecting the people so that there are no wounded, no arbitrary arrests,» Nao said.

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La entrada The Front Line: Protesters’ new defense against police attacks se publicó primero en Contagio Radio.

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Communities of the northwestern Urabá region turned in two reports to the Truth Commission that describe the violence they lived within the context of the armed conflict. During the gathering, victims called on the Commission to identify the third parties involved in these crimes as part of an effort to end more than 30 years of impunity. 

The reports, written by the Interchurch Justice and Peace Commission, the Corporation for Judicial Freedom, the Foundation Forging Futures and the Popular Institute of Training, reveal 166,000 hectares of land, located in 11 municipalities in Urabá, were stolen between 1995 and 1997 by a diverse set of armed actors that pretended to appropriate and redistribute the land. This affected various ethnic and peasant communities in this region of Colombia.

“The dispossession of lands in the Bajo Atrato was planned”

Martha Peña, of the Popular Institute of Training, said that the organizations that authored the report have accompanied the communities for years and collected first-hand testimonies that provided a base for the investigation. The report documented almost 500,000 cases of forced displacement, 1,200 forced disappearances and more than 120 victims of massacres, all committed between 1996 and 1997. 

As communities fled their lands in search of safety, companies that belonged to the corporate agriculture, infrastructure, palm oil and banana industry took ownership of the territory as part of what human rights organizations have said was an alliance between the private industry and paramilitary groups.

“When they left the Urabá region without leadership and silenced, they organized another plan to clear the territory,” said Peña, who added that impunity has reigned in these cases due to the permissiveness of the state. “We are not speaking of an issue that is unknown to the public but rather an issue that is talked about in terms of negation and impunity.”

«Since ‘97, we need to know the truth, but 22 years have gone by without an answer”

The reports were turned in to the Truth Commission only days after nine land rights activists from Turbo, Antioquia were captured by the police in a case that some have called a judicial «false positive.» Ayineth Pérez, of the Earth and Peace organizations, told the Truth Commission that those captured are «peasants that have the court decisions in their hands and despite this, their rights are being disrespected.»

Ana del Carmen Martínez, social leader of the organization Cavida, added that she wants «to know who are the ones responsible for their [first] dispossession and our new forced displacement because we know that behind this, there are interests of third parties at play.»

The truth commissioner Ángela Salazar said that the usurpation of lands in the Urabá and the Bajo Atrato region has been systematic, as evidenced by the two reports. The truth commissioner Alejandro Valencia added that the investigation into crimes committed in this region of Colombia will be central to the work of the Truth Commission.

A delegate of the Special Peace Jurisdiction said that the court has made important advances in Case 004, which focuses on the Urabá region, as it identifies the responsibility of civilians, ex-combatants and state agents, such as members of the Armed Forces, in crimes committed in the last 30 years.

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La entrada «The dispossession of lands in Urabá was planned»: New report se publicó primero en Contagio Radio.