On October 23, 2021, indigenous authorities of the Misak people confirmed the murder of the leader Nazaira Calambás Tunubalá. The event had occurred two days before and according to local authorities, armed individuals reached the village of La cujada in the Morales municipality (Cauca) and riddled it with shots.
For this crime, on the afternoon of Tuesday, May 23, a guarantee control judge sent José Alfredo and Alexander Capote Chate, presumed perpetrators of this hitman attack, to jail. The decision was made at the request of a prosecutor attached to the Special Investigation Unit of the Prosecutor’s Office and, according to the investigation, these subjects would be the ones who approached Calambas Tunubalá and killed her with several bullet wounds.
“The evidence indicates that the crime would be related to possible differences in the delimitation of a property,” said the fiscal control agency. In this sense, the leader’s crime could have been perpetrated due to land problems.
The same version had been mentioned by members of that community after learning about the crime of the member of the misak community. In fact, more women belonging to this town not only rejected the crime, but also denounced constant threats. In addition, they indicated that Nazaira Calambás had participated in the demonstrations corresponding to the national strike the same year that she was assassinated.
“We, Misak Misak Women, daughters of water and caretakers of the páramos and the entire environment that surrounds us, express our repudiation and rejection of the acts of violence and genocide that occurred in the municipality of Morales, village of La Cuchilla to our Mama Nazaria Calambás Tunubalá, who was a community member and mayor of zone three of the Misak Piscitau reservation in 2013,” said the statement issued after the crime.
According to what was found in the investigations, the Prosecutor’s Office charged the alleged perpetrators with the crimes of aggravated homicide and the manufacture, trafficking and possession of firearms or ammunition.
This is the panorama of violence against social leaders in the country
According to the human rights, conflict and peace observatory of the Institute for Development and Peace Studies –Indepaz–, so far in 2023, 66 people who exercised social leadership in Colombia have been murdered. The last case, according to the think tank, occurred on Thursday, May 18, in Tibú, Norte de Santander.
There, armed men killed Sergio Luis Castro, who was also a candidate for the council of that municipality. He also “had been making various complaints and oversight for irregularities in the municipal administration, such as the lack of contracting for the transportation service for school children,” as well as irregularities in the contracting of supplies for Puente Hamaca, among others.
In addition, Indepaz indicated that as of May 23, 12 indigenous leaders were assassinated in Nariño (4 cases); Cauca (3), and Cesar, Putumayo and Córdoba with one case in each department. Two crimes were also committed against LGBTIQ+ leaders. The first was perpetrated on February 26 in Cali against Shaina Vanessa Pretel; while the second occurred in Tolú Viejo –Sucre–. There, Alfredo Arrieta Vitola was murdered, approached by hitmen on a motorcycle while he was at his house.
On the other hand, so far this year, 14 ex-combatants of the former Farc have been assassinated. The first case was registered on February 6 in Riosucio –Caldas–, where subjects ended the life of César Augusto Ruiz. The last one was registered on May 20 against Víctor Manuel Caicedo, a former member of that group who was in the process of reincorporation in Guaviare, where he died. with Infobae