The road to Bellavista is hard to find. Lazily, the brown waters of the Atrato slosh against the narrow beach, which serves as a dock in the middle of a reed belt. Clouds of smoke drift from the church, which stands abandoned at the end of a path.
On May 2, 2002, the left-wing Farc guerrilla fought fierce battles with hostile paramilitaries. About 300 villagers had sought protection in the church - and got into the middle of the line of fire. An explosive device penetrated the roof of the church and landed directly in the altar. At least 79 people died as a result of the explosion, including dozens of minors.
"I was in church with my six children when the bomb exploded," recalls nurse Rosa de las Nieves. "I closed my eyes, felt for minutes, and when I opened them again, I saw my crying children bleeding from a number of wounds, body parts torn all around me." Together with the pastor, De las Nieves tried to take seriously injured people to a small hospital - but both Farc and paramilitaries blocked their way. Only by detours had it been possible to get to a doctor.
"The old fear returns"
Church in Bellavista in the Bojayá region: In a battle between Farc guerrillas and paramilitaries, an explosive device landed here on May 2, 2002 in the altar of the church.
Some 300 people had sought protection in the church - at least 79 of them died in the explosion, including dozens of minors.
"I was in church with my six children when the bomb exploded," recalls nurse Rosa de las Nieves. "We were bleeding from a number of wounds, all around were torn parts of the body." De las Nieves lost a nephew and a cousin in the massacre. Her children survived.
Today she lives in the "New Bellavista" on the Rio Atrato, a village that was built two kilometers away after the massacre.
Police patrols in the new village are designed to convey a sense of security. But the murder rate in the department of Chocó is still high, along with guerrillas and paramilitaries are here drug cartels and criminal gangs active.
The Farc retreated from the Bojayá region in 2016 following the conclusion of the 2016 peace agreement with the government. But the guerrillas left behind a power vacuum that was quickly filled: The marxist "National Liberation Army" ELN and the powerful Gulf clan settled in the region and have since been terrorizing the civilian population.
Macaria Allín also witnessed the massacre of Bellavista. "My daughters and I survived, but not all wounds healed," she says. "Ever since the murder is being done here, the old fear is back, the eternal on-the-hat-weariness is being worn down, the state claims it will protect us, but these are just empty words."
Particularly at risk are activists who protest in rural areas against expulsions, illegal gold cultivation or forced recruitment. Jesús Nevaldo Perreia Perreia is a representative of the Farmers Association Quibdó. His brother and one of his sons were murdered, another son disappeared without a trace.
His murdered brother had been forced to co-operate by both the Farc and the paramilitaries. "He could not refuse." As soon as the brother worked for one side, he was threatened by the other. So many people were killed because of this complicated situation or fled their home villages. "Whole river regions are now depopulated, because the fear is so great."
In the memory chapel for the victims of violence in Quibdó, the walls are covered with photos of the murdered. In addition to the name and age of the victims, the date of the crime and the groups of offenders are also recorded.
"The ELN has mined mobile phone reception, there is no Internet in the schools," says the indigenous activist José Luís Dogirama Sanapi. "Child mortality has increased because we no longer dare leave our country for old and new mines to buy medicines and food."
San Francisco de Asis Cathedral in Quibdó: Many people are suspicious of Iván Duque's right-wing conservative government, which does not sufficiently defend against violence and does not or only reluctantly implement the terms of the peace agreement. Only the church, so many say, takes care of the victims of violence and give them concrete support.
The Catholic pastor Ulrich Kollwitz from the diocese of Quibdó has been supporting victims of violence in the region for decades. He explains their rights, helps organize resistance groups, and advises them in the event of impending expulsion.
Chocó is one of the poorest regions in the country, the population particularly vulnerable.
"The biggest problems are social inequality, lack of access of the poor to education, health care and work," says Catholic bishop of Quibdó, Juan Carlos Barreto Barreto.
"Not a drop of blood in Bojayá" is on this poster in front of the altar in the rebuilt Church of Bellavista.
But the region does not rest. According to the State Ombudsman for Civil and Human Rights, 2250 Afro-Colombians and Indigenous people in Bojayá are in acute danger of violence from criminal structures. The nervousness has increased since part of the former Farc fighters unilaterally terminated the peace agreement.
Rosa de las Nieves lost a nephew and a cousin in the massacre. Her children survived. Bellavista, in the Bojayá district, became a symbol of the injustice and futility of an armed struggle that primarily claimed civilian casualties and was more about power and profit than ideology.
For the small community Bellavista the explosion was a turning point. Since 2007, no one lives on the river, a new village was built two kilometers further. 72 dead could be identified, only now the forensic medicine has released the bodies.
The Farc apologized for the bombing, after the conclusion of the peace agreement with the Colombian government in 2016 she withdrew from the area Bojayá.
But the guerrillas left behind a power vacuum that was quickly filled: The Marxist "National Liberation Army" ELN and the powerful Gulf clan settled in the region and used the usual mafia instruments to gain control of the terrain: protection racketeering, Banishment and expulsion of the indigenous population, forced recruitment of minors - and murder.
Who demands his civil rights lives dangerously
"Only a few days ago, a man was killed by the head, we buried him yesterday," the villagers report. Accordingly, ELN and paramilitaries fought each other on October 13 in the village of Carrillo. One of the parties is said to have used the fight to execute the peasant who had opposed an acquisition.
The search for the perpetrator continues, but it is unlikely that he will ever go to court. According to the non-governmental organization "Somos Defensores", more than 90 percent of the murders of human rights defenders between July 2017 and January 2019 have not been resolved, despite dissent from the Attorney General. The evaluates therefore already investigations as clarification, but not a final conviction.
Colombia: Murders of human rights activists mostly unpunished
| date | Selected murders of human rights activists | Officially cleared up | in percent | convictions | in percent |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2017 | 87 | 45 | 51.7% | 5 | 5.7% |
| February 2018 | 253 | 99 | 39.1% | 10 | 4.0% |
| August 2018 | 183 | 90 | 49.2% | 18 | 9.8% |
| October 2018 | 213 | 113 | 53.1% | 20 | 9.4% |
| January 2019 | 250 | 137 | 54.8% | 22 | 8.8% |
Those who organize themselves and demand their civil rights live dangerously: in Chocó in 2017 and 2018 at least twelve leading Afro-Colombian and indigenous human rights activists were murdered. Nationwide, according to the UN, there are 109 deaths in the current year alone.
The EU classifies the ELN as a terrorist organization. The notorious Gulf clan emerged from right-wing paramilitary groups and is estimated to account for about half of Colombia's export of cocaine abroad. The crime syndicate is said to work with the Mexican Sinaloa cartel.
Chocó is located on the well-known smuggling routes, it borders on Panama, the Pacific and the Atlantic and therefore has great geostrategic significance for the cartels. Not to mention the gold deposits in the region. Their illegal exploitation has meant that the river Atrato is now contaminated with mercury.
MIRROR ONLINE
In mid-October, the State Ombudsman for Civil and Human Rights sounded the alarm: the 2250 Afro-Colombians and Indigenous people in Bojayá were being picked up by criminal structures. At least 16 residents and community representatives had been threatened because they had spoken out against the presence of ELN and Golfkartell. In addition, "armed structures" installed personal mines to destroy communication channels.
"The ELN has mined mobile phone reception, there is no Internet in the schools," says the indigenous activist José Luís Dogirama Sanapi. "Child mortality has increased because we no longer dare leave our country for old and new mines to buy medicines and food." Even schools are now occupied by guerrilla fighters and would be used as accommodation. The fear among the natives is great, suicides are increasing. According to the Colombian High Commission for Peace, the number of mine victims has more than doubled between 2017 and 2018.
Annette Langer / DER SPIEGEL
Indigenous activist Sanapi (l.) And fellow combatants
"For us, nothing has changed with the peace agreement," said Sanapi's bitter summary. "The actors are new, but the war continues." The situation for Indigenous and Afro-Colombians is extremely dangerous and increasingly confusing: some ex-Farc members have joined the paramilitaries, ELN deserters are working for the military. "We can not trust anyone, neither the police nor the army, because they are infiltrated."
Chocó is one of the poorest regions in the country, the population particularly vulnerable. "The biggest problems are social inequality, lack of access of the poor to education, health care and work," says Catholic bishop of Quibdó, Juan Carlos Barreto Barreto.
Who needs money, grows cocaine or works as a mercenary. "After the departure of the Farc, ELN alone has recruited more than a hundred young people," says the bishop. In addition, about 11,000 Afro-Colombians and Indigenous people were expelled from their communities in Chocó.
The Catholic pastor Ulrich Kollwitz from the diocese of Quibdó has been supporting victims of violence in the region for decades. He works for Colombia's largest diocesan Human Rights Commission "Life, Justice and Peace".
Philipp Lichterbeck / Adveniat
Ulrich Kollwitz, priest in the diocese of Quibdó
"Our work is like that of the fire brigade, but the armed actors dictate the process," he says. "When a church threatens to flee the masses, we start immediately, convene an assembly and decide together what to do." Sometimes it helps to bring threats and crimes on display to prevent eviction. "Public and civil resistance are important and bring respect - even among the armed groups."
Nevertheless, nervousness in Colombia has been high ever since some of the former Farc fighters unilaterally terminated the peace agreement. As recently as seven indigenous civil rights activists were murdered in just one week in the department of Cauca, south of Chocó, right-wing conservative president Iván Duque sent 2,500 additional soldiers to the region - a sign of helplessness, according to government critics.
"Duque has only two remedies for the humanitarian crisis," says Bishop Barreto. "He's dispatching extra security forces in problem areas and destroying coca plantations from the air with glyphosate." However, with which legal alternatives the government wants to replace drug cultivation on an estimated 200,000 hectares of land, was completely unclear.
"Conventional agriculture is not subsidized," says Pastor Kollwitz. It is not worth while for the poor farmers to grow corn or coffee. The drug traffickers also offer an unbeatable advantage: "They pick up the cocaine paste right at the front door, the producer does not even have to pay for the transport." Indigenous people also report that Mexican drug traffickers have forced peasants to grow cocaine on death threats.
Nobody protects people from this kind of tyranny. "The state is absent, the peace process has weakened greatly since President Duque took office," says Bishop Barreto. The institutions codified in the peace agreement with Farc, such as the Truth Commission or the Special Court, would be discredited and underfunded by the government.
In view of the often unclear ownership, experts urgently call for a land reform that could strengthen smallholders' rights. But Duques right-conservative party "Centro democrático" has traditionally good connections to landowners and apparently little interest in change.
Duques poll numbers are in the basement, almost three quarters of the population reject him. Last week, when about 250,000 people took to the streets against violence and social injustice, an 18-year-old was killed by law enforcement officials. The indignation was huge, more mass protests are planned. The government apparently fears that Colombia may become the next source of conflict following rebellions in several South American countries. The President drew in and was ready to engage in a nationwide dialogue - it is unclear how it will look like.
It is astonishing how many people in the Chocó, despite real danger to life and limb, have declared war on violence - among them many women: "We are taking to the streets for a better chocó, for a better country," says an activist Quibdó with hundreds more protested.
Matt's Olsson
Especially in the cities, a liberal civil society is forming, which wants to defy the violence. In Medellín came with "Estamos listas" a women's party to local elections in late October - and brought it at least a seat in the city council. In Bogotá, Green Party politician Claudia López, who has campaigned for corruption and is openly lesbian, has been elected mayor.
"The more women hold political office, the more peace we will have," says 76-year-old Bernardina Vasquez. She witnessed the massacre in Bellavista - but she has no feelings of revenge. "Even former Farc rebels have every right to stand for election, and I hope that they exercise their office with heart and soul."
Sabine Kurtenbach from the GIGA Institute for Latin America is cautiously optimistic: "The peace agreement with Farc is one of the most comprehensive and inclusive that I know," she says. "The disarmament and demobilization has worked mostly well."
Although there are ex-guerilla, which demarcated, recently also very effective media. "But the Colombian society did not get jailed and called for cohesion." In part, the renegade Farc members were also right: "So far, many aspects of the peace plan have not been met by the government."
Kurtenbach does not believe in a relapse into the war. Nevertheless, she sees the danger of a new, diffuse form of violence with many different actors. "In such a situation, the state must be present, and the Colombian government does not lack military service, but political will."
This article was created as part of a research trip by the Latin American aid agency Adveniat, which supports numerous projects in Colombia and other countries in the region.
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