Children and adults from Chocó hide in trenches to protect themselves from bullets

Some impressive photographs showing how they protect themselves from the indigenous bullets of Choco show the serious situation in which communities suffer from incessant clashes between criminal gangs, who dispute the territory to take control of illegal rents. More than 800 families are still confined to fighting.

Depressed in a sort of gutter formed on the ground, children, women, elderly people and men from the community of Jagual, in the municipality of Riosucio, took refuge in order not to be injured during the clashes between the guerrillas of ELN and the Gulf clan. According to witnesses, the confrontation took place on Wednesday, March 27 in the morning.

One of the Indians took the photos and traveled several kilometers to obtain a mobile signal allowing them to send them and upload them on social networks to alert the Public Force on the situation. "They have 20 minutes of fighting and the community is there," he describes in one of the posts cited by the magazine Week.

Although the communities of Jagual and Marcial remain frightened, the army managed to enter the area after the warning to ensure safety, and residents reported the death of a man and the recovery of weapons and supplies.

The region is of particular interest to criminal organizations because of its strategic geography on the Pacific coast, which serves as a drug trafficking route. The Chocó peace advisor, Modesto Serna, said in Caracol News that because of this, more than 800 aboriginal people remain confined to their homes, unable to go out and work the land so as not to take risks.

Although the office of the mediator of the department has more than 5,000 people imprisoned municipalities of Bojayá, Carmen del Darién, Riosucio and Alto Baudó. Armed groups have even filled the area with antipersonnel mines to prevent the population from escaping. The situation is becoming more critical in the Juguamiandó river basins and in the sub-basins of the Atrato River.

Two weeks ago, Aboriginal communities reported that, due to the situation of confinement, eight children have died in the last two months, due to lack of food and medical care, unable to to be taken to health centers because of the clashes. In addition, Argemiro Bailarín, an indigenous leader, told El Tiempo that 17 more children under 6 must be admitted to the emergency room.

The Minister of Defense, Guillermo Botero, has confirmed the death of no minor; However, various social leaders and media have had access to photographs where children are watched. And they denounced the threats against human rights defenders in the region.

Week details that of Julio Mencheche, head of the Embera community, to whom they went to fetch 40 paramilitaries for the murder, but the native guard of more than 150 people protected it and avoided bringing it to him. Social organizations try to put it with his family in a safe place. after trying to talk to groups so that they forgive their lives and they refused.

The situation becomes critical, especially because it occurs when a national minga is conducted involving more than 22,000 indigenous people from nine departments of the country, who have been blocking the roads for nearly a month while demonstrations demanded Government, the implementation of peace agreements and the return of land confiscated during the armed conflict, among other requirements.