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Editor's Note: Victoria Tauli-Corpuz is the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples. She is an indigenous leader of the Kankana-e and Igorot people of the Cordillera Region in the Philippines.
(CNN Spanish) - Little by little the news of a bloody murder was leaked in the indigenous reserve of Tacueyó in Cauca, Colombia, a center of indigenous culture, governance and resistance. Inside a car riddled were the bodies of Cristina Bautista, the governor of the indigenous territory Nasa Tacueyó, whom she knew personally, and four people belonging to the indigenous guard, a voluntary and unarmed group that patrols the territories of the community and serves as a mediator .
The conflict over land in Colombia has produced many such scenes, but the media cover few of them. Journalists who go into violence discover that a tragic pattern follows.
On one side of these conflicts, the indigenous, Afro-descendant and peasant communities of Colombia try to maintain control over their territories, keeping their cultures and forests intact despite decades of external pressure. Its autonomous and non-violent peacekeeping groups are constantly at the wrong end of a weapon.
On the other side, a wide range of forces are confronted without taking into account the traditional guardians of the land, while Colombia struggles to recover after decades of civil war. Although a peace agreement was signed between the Government and the largest rebel military group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the government's failure to implement the agreement is creating chaos and conflict. Some FARC dissidents have split, while new illegal armed groups fill gaps left by the FARC. The drug cartels still have power in some places, and are often used as scapegoats for violence and illegality perpetrated by other actors. And while there is a strong need for peacekeeping forces in rural areas of the country, government militarism can become another threat to indigenous communities.
When indigenous leaders get in the way of those who covet their land for other purposes, violence is usually the result. An increase in the tragic murders of indigenous and social leaders signals another wave of conflict. So far this year, the UN has recorded 52 murders of indigenous people in Cauca alone. The National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC) has documented this year 120 murders of this type throughout Colombia.
The global narrative argues that drug trafficking is behind these murders, but this does not tell the whole story. The Colombian Ombudsman documented at least 486 murders of human rights defenders since the peace agreement was signed in 2016, suggesting that this violence is a systematic attack against social activists, including indigenous peoples, Afro-descendants and local communities. This phenomenon is exacerbated by the inability of the Government to properly implement the peace agreement. Since being elected in June 2018, the Duque administration has de-financed important provisions of the agreement, including programs to reintegrate ex-combatants from the FARC and recognition of the land rights of indigenous people, Afro-descendants and communities.
Resolving the true causes of the conflict is the only way to build a lasting peace. Land ownership in Colombia - a long history of inequality - was one of the first issues discussed in the peace negotiations between the FARC and the Government. When previous efforts on land ownership failed to meet the needs of indigenous and Afro-descendant communities, the peace agreement signed three years ago included a comprehensive program to address historical claims and strengthen the way these groups manage their land.
The peace agreement also includes a whole "Ethnic Chapter" - a historic achievement - to apply indigenous and community rights in all aspects of the agreement. But this aspect of the agreement has barely advanced, according to the Ethnic Commission for Peace and the Defense of Territorial Rights, the autonomous body created to promote the representation of ethnic communities in the peace process. This lack of implementation leaves indigenous peoples and Afro-descendant communities vulnerable to external threats, and does not take advantage of the numerous contributions of indigenous peoples to sustainable development and environmental conservation. Failure to recognize the rights of indigenous people, people of African descent and communities is a fundamental cause of violence.
I have seen firsthand that Colombia is not alone in its brutal treatment of indigenous peoples. Across the Amazon jungle, another unarmed indigenous leader, Paulo Paulino Guajajara, was killed while patrolling the Araribóia indigenous reserve in the Brazilian state of Maranhão. In Brazil, the national government does not have the excuse of a civil war past to justify its inability to keep the peace. Instead, the president has been openly disdainful of indigenous rights, not only of his rights to land, but of his right to exist. His statements openly encourage violence against indigenous peoples.
And this story - of indigenous leaders and murdered activists - can be found everywhere in the world. In 2018, 321 human rights defenders in 27 countries were killed, and many more murders are likely to remain unregistered. Behind these murders there is a long history of smear campaigns that dehumanize and discredit indigenous peoples, and an unfair legal persecution that treats land defenders as criminals. By not recognizing the rights of indigenous peoples to the lands where they have lived and have protected for centuries - and treat them instead as criminals or obstacles to development -, governments legitimize violence against them.
Facing this humanitarian crisis in Colombia means ensuring that indigenous and Afro-descendant authorities and government representatives can work directly together to implement the peace agreement, so that they respect the self-determination of communities. Around the world, those in power must stand up and demand the end of violence. The marginalized are already talking, and they are paying for it with their lives.
Those of us who work to protect the rights of indigenous peoples and communities, who have appeared on death lists and still have escaped bullets, are still hopeful that all human life will be valued equally .
However, more than anything, we desperately want the killings to stop. In Colombia, in Brazil and everywhere.