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Murder of human rights defender Emilsen Manyoma, of the CONPAZ network and leader of the Bajo Calima Community Council, together with her spouse Joe Javier Rodallega in Buenaventura.
Dear Sir or Madam,
I trust this finds you well.
I wish to share with you my profound sadness and concern over the recent murder of Emilsen Manyoma, human rights defender with the CONPAZ network and leader of the Bajo Calima Community Council, in Buenaventura.
Although the events in question are still under investigation, the Inter-church Justice and Peace Commission has reported that her body, together with that of her husband Joe Javier Rodallega, was found lifeless, beheaded and with multiple stab wounds yesterday, 17th January, at dawn in the El Progreso neighbourhood, of commune 10 in Buenaventura. Different sources suggest that both had been picked up on Saturday night in a taxi which took them to Las Palmas neighbourhood, where contact with them was lost.
Through her leadership in the Community Council, Emilson had been part of the struggle for the preservation of collective territories in the Bajo Calima area since 2005, in the face of paramilitary control, drug-trafficking and megaprojects belonging to the firm Aguadulce. Through her work with the network CONPAZ, she had also supported various social initiatives of communities in Buenaventura, such as the declarations of humanitarian reserves along the San Juan and Calima river basins, and the construction of the Puente Nayero Humanitarian Space – places which are accompanied by international organisations – and more recently, the Punta Icaco Humanitarian Space, formalised on the 6th October last year.
This murder has taken place in the worrying context of the Buenaventura area in recent months. Bajo Calima itself also saw a man shot on 23rd November last year, and the community leader Armando Torres Lozano, of the Community Council and Marcha Patriótica political movement, has been missing since the 2nd December. In La Playita neighbourhood, five families from Piedras Cantan Street (next door to the Humanitarian Spaces) were forcibly displaced on 2nd January by alleged paramilitary group, bringing to 14 the number of families that have had to displace due to threats between 2016 and the beginning of 2017. Various death threats and threats of extortion have also been reported in the Punta Icaco Humanitarian Space, despite the high presence of public security forces in that part of the city.
In view of these events, I ask the international community to:
- Urge the Attorney General’s office to investigate the murder of Emilsen Manyoma and Joe Javier Rodallega as a matter of priority, fairly and impartially.
- Make a public, jointly-coordinated statement condemning this murder in particular, in the context of a wave of murders of social leaders and human rights’ defenders over recent months in Colombia.
- Urge the Colombian Government to agree and implement rapid and effective protection measures for threatened leaders, in particular those related to point 3.4 of the peace agreement with the FARC, concerning the dismantling of paramilitary successor groups.
Yours faithfully,