On the afternoon of August 2, a group of armed men kidnapped two leaders from the municipality of Litoral de San Juan. They are Geiler Andrés Lizalda, from Palestine, and Alexis Chocho Chamapuro, from Puerto Pizario.
It was reported that Chocho Chamapuro was driving a boat with 25 passengers when he was intercepted by six armed men on the way between Puerto Pizario and Palestina who were traveling in a beak-type boat with a 75 horsepower engine. The armed men, with a list in hand and photographs, forced him to get on the boat in which they were traveling and headed up the San Juan River.
Alexis Chocho Chamapuro, of the wounaan indigenous community of Puerto Pizario, served as town hall secretary and community guardian.
Geiler Lizalda Torres, from the Palestinian community council, was taken from one of the houses in this community.
Since then there is no knowledge of the whereabouts of these two people. As in almost all of Chocó, a bloody dispute for territorial control is taking place in this region between the Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AGC) or Clan del Golfo and the National Liberation Army (ELN).
Community and human rights organizations have spoken out and demand respect for the lives of Alexis and Geiler, their prompt release and return to their communities.