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He is one of the few people not to have forbidden territories in Colombia. On a normal day, you can have your breakfast at Casa de Nariño without any problem, have lunch in Catatumbo's violent guts and dine in the places where the battle against illicit crops and drug trafficking takes place in the mountains of Cauca.
It's his pbadion. His commitment to the defense of human rights is reflected in each of his responses and in the enthusiasm with which he takes care of those who come to expose the problem that affects communities from all over from the country.
He did it last Tuesday in the municipality of El Dovio, north of the valley. There, before beginning his meeting with the victims and the local management, he installed at the same table a "confessional" where the civil, police, military and social authorities pbaded to tell him in the ear the divine and human who takes place in the canyon of Garrapatas
After this "ritual" that he repeats daily throughout the national geography, he talks with El Pais about his worries about the death of. indigenous children in El Dovio and the threat to human rights leaders and defenders in Colombia.
How to deal with the murder of social leaders in Colombia and Valle del Cauca
After departments like Cauca, Norte de Santander and Antioquia, Valle del Cauca ranks fourth in terms of this has to do with the number of social leaders killed between January 1, 2016 and that date. The question should not concern the numbers, but express as a company that no leader should be killed to defend human rights and protect them must be a state policy to guarantee peace and democracy.
How to guarantee this protection
I could not attend the last meeting of the National Commission for Security Guarantees and not because I did not want to go there or because I did not want to badfeed President of the Republic but because I knew El Dovio and Trujillo are going to have tools for this government that ends, and for the one that follows, realizes a public policy so that it does not have 311 or 320 leaders killed, but a policy that allows security guarantees to arrive in the country. the right time and not when the person is already in the graveyard.
Should this policy also aim to avoid high levels of impunity?
mpunidad, we worked very close to the attorney general of the nation; he is part of the commission, I have spoken with him and I know that he has reached a very high level of clarification and that this is demonstrated by the accusations that all these cases have. They have a special unit derived from the peace agreement and where all these criminal news or criminal proceedings are treated there and I am very confident that the level of impunity in this specific case of murders of social leaders and of Human rights defenders will be shot down Effective work of the Attorney General and his Deputy Attorney General
During the visits you have made to the country, have you heard of the presence of Mexican cartels controlling the Illegal operation?
On the issue of mining not illegal, but in other sectors, yes; especially in those that have to do with the Pacific. We warned more than a year ago that the Sinaloa cartel exists and that they came from Mexico to Colombia to control the entire route of drug cultivation, processing and transportation. abroad.
violence linked to the presence of these cartels in the country?
What we clearly have is that the vast majority of murders in Tumaco and murders in Buenaventura are related to drug trafficking.
Measures taken by the Ombudsman to mitigate these facts?
As I said at the meeting, I was in Naya this week and Monday there was a big security council. del Valle, with our delegate of the Early Warning System and with institutions like the Seine, Icbf, because in the areas where there are these problems of illegal mining and smuggling. drugs, we can not reach only with the public force, but that we must arrive with social investment because otherwise, people have no choice but to continue to cultivate and we must take private businesses so that they can create jobs.
He also spoke of the increase in homicides in San Andrés …
Very disturbing and the Valle Department has too much relationship with San Andrés; Previously, it was said that the island of San Andrés was from the Valle del Cauca. Two months ago, we issued an early warning because there had been 26 homicides in the streets of San Andrés. A situation that worries us too much and not only because of this, but because the airport does not work properly, the hospital does not work as it should and the discharge does not work no more; We have therefore warned against the need to do a very strong job and early warnings are used to attract attention and the national government, the state and society to work together for these things not to happen not and we give him a direction to the public service and that acts of corruption do not happen again.
But what about San Andrés, that is also the fight between drug traffickers for territorial control?
Without a doubt. We said that there are dynamics on which we must work to end them, such as drug trafficking, coca leaf cultivation and illegal mining. So, these three things must be attacked as a state and as a society because we Colombians have to get used to not living illicit cultures.
Did you know the case of the death of indigenous children in Garrapatas Canyon?
I am very worried because I thought it was a subject that did not exist in the Valle Department and less in a municipality like this. It is not possible that in the past 45 days, five children under one year old have died and we do not know why. The worst thing, as noted by the health secretary of the municipality of El Dovio, is that they are children who have homes in better condition; where they have drinking water, where they have better health conditions and we are very worried and we will do an intervention. I hope it will be in the hands of Family Welfare and the Attorney General's Office to determine why these children are dying in Valle del Cauca and here in El Dovio. Imagine, how children will die when we have to protect them and go ahead. So I am very worried because I did not know about this situation and we will work so that it does not happen again
This intervention when it would be done?
I do not know yet. We have just heard the news and we expect that we will send our children's delegate very quickly to check what is happening in the municipality of El Dovio
What other things does this visit bring? it north of the valley?
It was very important because I began to learn from the indigenous community the problems that they had. I've been with them for several hours during the day and we had a meeting with the mayor, the police and the army to get the background of everything that's happening in El Dovio, but I'm silent because during the year there was only one homicide committed and last year there were four. So we can say that in El Dovio peace struck and that it was the important thing; that when an actor like Farc leaves, we can work calmly. Now, we have a new factor that has not left this area because it has not left many other parts of Colombia and is the one that has to do with illicit crops in the Garrapatas Canyon area and that can be worked hand in hand of the community realizing the substitution plans and eradication plans.
What is convenient for this region is substitution or eradication?
I believe much more in the substitution because no peasant or native cultivates the coca leaf because he wants it, but because it is his turn; As I have said many times, there must be post – conflict institutionalism, the Ministries of Agriculture, Education, Housing and Education. Health, among others, giving people the conditions for them to grow other products. so that people can have a standard of living that meets the needs of each family
What is the concrete commitment you make today with this municipality so affected by violence and drug trafficking?
I have several concerns and one in particular: one that concerns the indigenous community in three colonies where the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Agriculture have to make a very big to legalize them and decide on respective safeguards. This is what will allow them to derive their revenues from the General Participation System and will also allow the mayor to make investments in these areas. Not where people say, but in the shelter that is built because the needs that I have seen today are extremely serious where children study in a barn and where the conditions are great. habitability of the houses are too precarious.
I am very pleased with El Dovio because the mayor tells me that early warnings have been helpful because we are making visible the problems of the community and without the Office of the Mayor. Ombudsman would not be possible. 19659033] "Criminal gangs are gathering in some neighborhoods of the municipality of Trujillo and we warned in our first warnings, that we will work with the national army to neutralize these groups"
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