Monsignor Mario de Jesús Álvarez Gómez, Bishop of Istmina-Tadó, denounced that in Chocó new armed groups are appearing that, with the supposed and terrifying argument of carrying out “social cleansing”, are causing “death and despair” among the inhabitants of the department.
He added that “there is an aggressive, very dangerous emboldening of these different actors who have always sustained confrontations, confrontations here in Chocó.”
The situation is worsening “in the community of San José del Palmar, in the community of Nóvita, in the community of Alto Baudó, the indigenous community of Puesto Indio, in Medio San Juan.”
“This situation is truly unfortunate because in our capital, in Quibdó, during these days violence is intensifying even more and new groups are entering the scene to increase the confrontation and with what is going to be cleaned up, it is not being provoked but more and more death and despair”, added Monsignor Álvarez.
Likewise, he denounced that “in the city of Quibdó a new group appears, Nuevo Renacer, that’s what they call themselves, who arrive with this initiative. This does nothing but break a process of dialogue, of some agreement in the search for peace”.
The Monsignor resented that after “a rather beautiful job, with some groups with settlements in Quibdó”, what the arrival of these gangs has done is “exacerbate the situation, there is emboldening of all the groups and the situation is becoming more complicated for us”. .
The priest also recalled the death of three indigenous children in Chocó and pointed out that “the problem is lack of education. These indigenous and Afro communities, not having an aqueduct, do everything in the streams, in the tributaries, in the rivers. It is the water that is generally consumed and the first affected are the children”.
And in view of these facts, he affirms that communities must be educated, because “among the indigenous it is easy to recur that this is the presence of the devil, witchcraft, and it is the way for suicides to occur.”
“In Pizarro, the municipal seat of Bajo Baudó, the municipal seat, health is in its infancy, so the suffering is general for this cause,” he added.