Colombia ranked as the second consecutive year as the worst country in the world for environmentalists. As many as 65 environmentalists were killed in the Andean country during 2020, a year that was marked by the pandemic. Violence against land defenders killed 227 people worldwide, up from 212 in 2019. Mexico and the Philippines top, after Colombia, the blacklist compiled each year by the environmental organization Global Witness.
The country that signed peace with the FARC guerrillas almost five years ago still coexists with violence in part of the territory. Bathed by two oceans, Colombia is home to half of the planet’s wastelands and 30% of its territory is covered by the Amazon rainforest, making it one of the most biodiverse countries in the world. Environmentalists have raised their voices in the face of the violent siege they are suffering and the impunity of the crimes, which the Government of Iván Duque has been unable to contain. “There is a link between armed violence and the model of economic development, this makes Colombia the country with the most murdered environmental leaders. There is no chance of access to justice and when we do it is slow and ineffective,” he said. denounce in February this year in El País the environmentalist France Márquez, who has launched his candidacy for the presidency of the country for the 2022 elections.
The report speaks with particular harshness of Colombia, where it considers that attacks on land defenders and social leaders are taking place across the country and involve “endemic violence” despite the agreement signed in 2016. The document attributes the situation to an “unfortunate implementation” of the peace process by Government. “In many of the most remote areas, paramilitaries and criminals have increased their control through violence against rural communities and the lack of state action to protect them. Those seeking to protect their land and environment are increasingly trapped, ”he adds. Up to 17 killings took place as part of programs aimed at promoting farmers ’transition from coca cultivation to legal crops, enshrined in one of the points of the peace agreement.
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Global Witness points out that Colombian indigenous peoples are the most affected by the violence, a situation that worsened during the pandemic. “Official closures lead to land defenders being attacked in their homes and government protection measures were cut,” he notes. The Ideas for Peace Foundation had already warned in a report in April 2020 that, in addition to the challenges imposed by the covid, “the risks posed by the threats received by officials of the National Parks of the region of the region Amazonia by dissident FARC structures. “
Amid the dripping of deaths, more than once a week, the Government of Iván Duque has tried to present itself to the world as a defender of the environment. The country was chosen in 2020 to host World Environment Day, an event promoted by the United Nations that was held virtually last September. The president highlighted the fight against deforestation and assured that “defending the environment as a national security purpose” was included. The government has earmarked 22,000 members of the military to protect the land. However, deforestation meant losing 171,685 hectares of forest in 2020, mostly in the Amazon, 8% more than in 2019, according to official figures.
Mexico was in 2020 the second worst country in the world for land defenders, with 30 murders. The figure represents a growth of 67% over the previous year. The Global Witness report indicates that logging was linked to nearly a third of these attacks, and that half of all crimes in the country were directed against indigenous communities. He also points out that impunity for crimes against environmentalists “remains surprisingly high: up to 95% of murders do not result in a trial.”
Latin America continues to concentrate the largest number of deaths of environmentalists in the world. 20 environmentalists died in Brazil, 17 in Honduras, 13 in Guatemala, 12 in Nicaragua and 06:00 in Peru. The report notes that in Brazil and Peru, nearly three-quarters of the recorded attacks took place in each country’s Amazon region.
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