By Pedro Santana Rodríguez
The protests in Colombia have continued for 23 days in the midst of brutal repression that has resulted in more than 50 demonstrators killed, according to the non-governmental organization INDEPAZ (Instituto de Estudios Para el Desarrollo y La Paz / The Institute of Studies for Development and Peace), as of May 18, 2021. There were 46 cases of killings by police, in addition to six other cases that were in the process of verification, the latter in the city of Cali. As of May 12th, according to a joint report by INDEPAZ and Temblores, there had also been 278 wounded, 32 eye injuries, 356 physical aggressions, 18 acts of sexual violence and more than 1,000 arrests. At this time, 134 people have gone missing and have not yet been located.
Massacres and Killings of Social Leaders Impede Peace in Colombia
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by Gimena Sánchez-Garzoli
In recent months, the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) has received various requests for the protection of social leaders and ethnic minorities, as well as human rights cases requiring intervention. These have surpassed our staff’s ability to act on all of them in our usual, expeditious manner. As such, we are constrained to publishing alerts in a parceled manner. Below are the first set of cases we’ve received.
We cannot stress enough that international actions are required to stop the human rights rollbacks occurring as a result of the inadequate implementation of the 2016 peace accord, especially the Ethnic Chapter; resistance to advance a humanitarian dialogue with the National Liberation Army (