In Colombia, human rights activists live in constant fear

Colombia, July 25: One day after Luis Dagua last left his farm in Colombia’s southwest his body was found, his head shattered with a rock. He was a 64- year- old farmer and rights activist and left behind four children. At around the same time, the body of Iber Angulo, an activist for black rights in the region, was found floating in a river. He had been abducted by an armed group on May 5. Colombia is in the grip of terror with rights activists the primary targets for violent gangs battling for control of the lucrative drug trafficking trade. Since the landmark peace deal signed between the government and Marxist guerrillas FARC in December 2016, 326 human rights activists have been killed. One indigenous, black or peasant rights activist is murdered every three days, and many in the Cauca department where Dagua lived, in which 43 percent of the population are indigenous or black. Military checkpoints at the entrances to Cauca warn of the dangers lurking in the region, which has accounted for 81 of the 326 murders, according to the Ombudsman’s Office. Juan Carlos Chindicue is amongst those trying to escape a similarly gruesome fate. He’s come to the village of Toez, near where Dagua was found, to hide out amongst the indigenous guard — but they’re armed only with sticks. He left behind his wife in nearby Cali, one of the most violent cities in the world, with almost 50 murders per 100,000 citizens last year. “There’s always been this anxiety, this fear of dying in the streets, in the towns, in the country,” Chindicue said.