“The men have been disarmed, but not the drug traffickers,” says Colombian leader under threat

First modification: 02/22/2023 – 16:48Last modification: 02/22/2023 – 16:53

RFI: What is the situation in Chocó, the region from which you have once again had to leave after receiving death threats?

Leyner Palacios: The reality is that the department of Chocó has been living in a humanitarian crisis for approximately 30 years. However, today our balance is that the situation, instead of having improved, has worsened to such an extent that in the very urban center of Quibdó there are some houses painted with the names of the armed actors. The control of these armed actors in the neighborhoods has set up a number of barriers and borders. I would say that in the department of Chocó more than half of the population is totally confined. In the rural communities an atmosphere of kidnapping is perceived.

There are extortions to the population, the levels of sexual assaults against women are increasing. The level of recruitment has increased. Around 60 young people have been hanged for not agreeing to be recruited.

The state has almost completely lost control of the department. This panorama is a reflection of what is happening to the people in Arauca, in Caquetá, in Catatumbo, in Orinoquia, in many territories of Colombia.

RFI: You say that what scares you the most is the silence that was established among the social leaders…

Leyner Palacios: Without a doubt, the repression of the armed groups, and also the impunity that has taken shape in the region make it possible for none of the leaders to want to speak. And especially when this type of thing happens, like what just happened with Leyner: the leader who speaks and who denounces this type of anomalies in the department of Chocó is assassinated, displaced, threatened or intimidated.

So, the law of silence is the law that has prevailed at this time and the search also by people to be able to safeguard their lives, since all they have to do is see the number of human rights violations and remain silent in order not to run. the same fate that is running her and that perhaps other leaders who have been assassinated have suffered.

RFI: Communities and social leaders continue to be threatened in Colombia, despite the fact that a peace treaty has been signed with the FARC. Peace is currently being negotiated with other armed groups. There is much talk about total peace in the country, but these are the questions that one asks abroad: What has not been done well? Why does this situation persist? Why haven’t the security systems worked?

Leyner Palacios: Well, the security systems have not worked because in Colombia we have attempted to dismantle the armed forces. However, in Colombia there has not been a process of laying down the arms of the phenomenon of drug trafficking, of economic interests. Nor has there been a dismantling of the structures that they maintain and that make it possible for others to arm themselves.

So we removed, we disarmed some men, but after the other four days we recycled the violence, because what those who have those interests are trying to re-arm others, a few other people.

Right now corruption is king. And the other situation is that in the negotiation processes that we are carrying out, well, what we are saying to the armed actors is that, even if the hostilities, the combats, the confrontations cease, well, we need the hostilities against the civil population.

We cannot understand that while they are talking they are raping the women. We cannot accept that while they are talking, they continue to impose mines and extortion on the civilian population. Although it is necessary to advance in the dialogue and in the path that the national government has set, what we are also demanding of the parties is that they design a methodology to allow the population to cease hostilities.

RFI: You have been displaced seven times and despite the fact that the State has guaranteed your security right now, do you find it difficult to continue living in Colombia?

Leyner Palacios: I find it very difficult to live in Colombia and it is a fact that I cannot be in the department of Chocó. Three years ago I came out in the same conditions that happened now. They called me and made a threat. I left the department of Chocó and stayed in Colombia. I stayed in Cali and two months later, after staying in Cali, they killed one of my bodyguards. Who guarantees me at this time that, in two or three months, there will not be another bodyguard or even a relative or myself dead.

This is a systematic and recurring issue. How is it possible that after having experienced seven displacements, having lived through the massacre there, having lived through all these persecutions, all these threats, today there is not an entity that has investigated, prosecuted and punished those responsible for committing these serious crimes? against me?

But also, how is it possible that impunity is configured with all the murders and threats that are being made to social leaders?

What I am saying is that non-investigation, impunity is the prize for crime. Today the delinquents are not receiving those exemplary sanctions in the face of the serious acts of violation of violence that they exercise against social leaders. So I don’t see conditions at this time beyond the protection system that has been offered to me, I don’t see conditions, because the phenomena that are persecuting me, the State does not feel that it is persecuting them.