PUBLIC STATEMENT – INCREASE IN TARGETING AND CRIMINALIZATION BY THE STATE AGAINST SOCIAL LEADERS ENDARERING THEIR LIVES*

The Human Rights Secretariat of the Coordinador Nacional Agrario (CNA) categorically rejects and condemns the accusations and institutional criminalization carried out by the National Government in the current context.

1. On March 3, 2025, President Gustavo Petro Urrego stated that: «the social organizations of Catatumbo are permeated by weapons and subordinated to the region’s armed organizations,» a narrative that has also been maintained to this day by the Minister of the Interior, Armando Benedetti, who accused the ombudsman of the municipality of Ocaña, department of Norte de Santander, of being suspicious of assisting the insurgency for questioning, as part of his work, the impacts of military operations that have affected the communities of Catatumbo. Similarly, the statements by the Minister of Defense, Pedro Sánchez, are concerning. He claimed that the population in the Micay region, in the south of the country, has been co-opted and instrumentalized by armed groups and has turned against the armed forces. These affirmations signal a shift in the war, redirecting military strategies toward organized communities. In previous decades, such statements by the governments resulted in mass displacements, massacres of thousands of peasants, and the death and disappearance of countless social leaders in the country. Even more serious in this context is that the very president, Gustavo Petro Urrego—elected by millions, including many members of social organizations—now criminalizes and stigmatizes these organizations.

2. For the Coordinador Nacional Agrario, as an organization defending life, human rights, the permanence of communities in their territories, food production, and environmental protection—all elements of the project of an Integral and Popular Agrarian Reform for the country—it is alarming (as it is for many sister organizations) that this government continues to deepen and expand the military doctrine of the «internal enemy.» This doctrine is based on fostering hatred and a violent mentality against those of us who propose alternatives to the current capitalist mode of production and envision a different world (one that avoids the ongoing destruction of life, the planet, and humanity itself).

3. As a result of these biased accusations against social organizations, the levels of risk against social leaders and human rights defenders have increased, through profiling, surveillance, and inclusion in military intelligence battle orders in Catatumbo and other regions of the country. Criminal attacks have also begun to materialize, such as the attack against our comrade Ernesto Roa Montañez on April 22 in the municipality of Saravena, Arauca.

Imagen: Ernesto Roa, destacado líder campesino, anterior presidente del @CNA_Colombia, Vocero del @centroriente_ y de la Asociación Nacional Campesina @Asonalca_.

4. As the Coordinador Nacional Agrario, we call upon President Gustavo Petro Urrego and the Ministers of Interior and Defense to retract their statements to the public, which singles out, criminalize, and endanger the lives of communities and their social and political leaders and organizations. Should they fail to do so, we hold them responsible for any attacks against the lives and human rights of communities and social leaders, whether through attacks, assassinations, persecution, judicialization, displacement, or massacres.

5. We demand that the bodies responsible for justice and oversight investigate the government’s irresponsibility in endangering the lives of social leaders; we also demand that the State’s intelligence agencies cease profiling social leaders, distorting their historical character as defenders of life and human rights. We call on the international community and human rights organizations to remain vigilant regarding the genocidal strategy being carried out by the State, led by the National Government, against social leaderships.

For the Defense and Recovery of the Colombian Countryside, Life with Dignity and Popular Sovereignty!

* Retrieved from the CNA website: https://cnacolombia.org/comunicado-publico-aumenta-el-senalamiento-y-la-criminalizacion-por-parte-del-estado-contra-los-liderazgos-sociales/