Thousands of people “sow” body of indigenous leader murdered in Colombia

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Some 3,000 people on Friday “sowed” the body of indigenous governor Sandra Liliana Peña, murdered last Tuesday in the hamlet of El Porvenir, in the municipality of Caldono, part of the troubled Colombian department of Cauca (southwest).

Peña, governor of the La Laguna Siberia reservation, where she was buried on Friday, was also an activist for the environment, territory and peace, linked to processes of manual eradication of coca crops that abound in that region.

The leader of the Nasa people was buried a day after the indigenous community of Cauca staged a peaceful march in her memory, a day marked again by violence in which at least 22 people were injured after an armed attack, allegedly by dissidents of the former FARC guerrillas.

“We bid a sad farewell to our comrade Sandra Liliana Peña,” lamented Friday the Association of Indigenous Councils of Northern Cauca (ACIN) in repudiating the governor’s murder and the constant attack on ethnic leaders in this region of the country.

At the “sowing” of her body, as the burial is called in the Nasa tradition, the community paid homage to Peña amidst traditional rituals, while the 32 people detained Thursday by the indigenous people and who will be tried for the crime and the attacks on the communities in the area, were also brought to the ceremony.

International community condemns the murder

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) on Friday repudiated the murder of the indigenous leader and “the attack with firearms against indigenous authorities and members of the indigenous guard” that occurred on Thursday.

“The IACHR urges the State of Colombia to continue investigating the facts with due diligence and to develop policies with an ethnic focus to mitigate the structural causes of violence, redoubling its efforts for the full implementation of the peace agreement,” the Commission warned.

Peña was traveling on a motorcycle on Tuesday when armed men shot her and the driver, and although the crime has not been clarified, her father, Clímaco Peña, blamed “mafiosos” who had threatened her in the past for her work in defense of the territory and opposing the expansion of coca crops.

In the department of Cauca, where Caldono is located, there are several active armed groups, including FARC dissidents, National Liberation Army (ELN) blocs, the Gulf Clan and other criminal gangs, who fight over the exits to the Pacific, the corridors for illegal trade, coca and mining operations.

During this war over resources and territory, these groups will murder anyone who gets in their way, including indigenous people, who remain faithful to the protection of their territory.

“Faced with this crisis, the ‘minga’ (conglomeration of indigenous communities) is working independently, with no coordination with military forces, we are going strong against the violence of drug trafficking. For all our fallen comrades,” warned the ACIN.