Vice President Francia Márquez acknowledged responsibility on behalf of the State “for the human rights violations committed against the Afro-descendant communities of the territories of the Cacarica, Salaqui and Truandó basin, in Riosucio, Chocó (west), during a military operation in February 1997.
In February 1997, in the Cacarica River basin (Riosucio, Chocó), 3,500 people were displaced and several leaders assassinated, as a consequence of military operations carried out between paramilitary groups and members of the Army.
After these painful events, in 2013, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights IACHR issued a ruling concluding the State’s responsibility of Colombia, in the military operations in the Cacarica river basin, since they were coordinated between members of the Public Force and paramilitary units.
After 26 years, the National Government brought a message of forgiveness for impunity and human rights violations against the Cacarica community. He also reiterated that the complicity of the State with armed groups should never be repeated.
“We accept, without conditions, the declaration of international responsibility of the Colombian State made by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights for the facts established in its sentence,” said Márquez.
The Resolution of the Inter-American Court
In 2013, the Inter-American Court declared the international responsibility of the Colombian State for the forced displacement suffered by the 23 communities that have historically inhabited the Cacarica river basin, in the framework of the military operation “Genesis” and the simultaneous incursions of the paramilitary group Autodefensas Unidas. of Colombia (AUC) between February 24 and 27, 1997.
Among the displaced is the poet and leader of the organization Cavida (Communities of Self-Determination, Life and Dignity of Cacarica) Jahaira Salazar Córdoba, who remembers how at the age of seven, one morning in February 1997, she had to leave her home. due to the bombing and overflights of Kfir planes.