Political violence in Colombia so far this year counts 15 massacres, two of them in the territory of Temuco. | Photo: Twitter: Indepaz

Bogota, February 26 (RHC)-- The spiral of violence in Colombia claimed a new victim when last Wednesday an indigenous leader was murdered in Tumaco (in the west of the country, on the Pacific coast), in the conclusion of a week in which more than a dozen people were victims of insecurity in the same municipality in the state of Nariño.

The Awá Indigenous Reservation, Piguambi Palangala reported that on Wednesday "around noon, unknown armed men killed a fellow member of the reservation, who this year served as prosecutor of the Piguambi Palangala cabildo Jhon Albeiro Pai Pascal," according to the indigenous organization.

The indigenous reservation also denounces that this fact adds "to the difficult situations we have been facing, among deaths, threats, accusations and attacks on leaders" of this native people. This is the 27th case of murder of indigenous leaders so far this year in the country.

The indigenous reservation demands, for its part, respect for its territory, life, the indigenous communities of that region and respect for their territorial autonomy and therefore, demands the government to "initiate the collective protection route together with the indigenous authorities.  They also request the establishment of a transitional justice mechanism to clarify the facts.

In Temuco, the last days have seen the increase of political violence, since in the last weekend 11 people were murdered, in the 14th and 15th massacres so far in 2021 in Colombia, in a region where in 2020 there were three collective murders, and in the last month 3 more people have died, 2 of them indigenous and one more signatory of the peace agreements between the Colombian State and the then FARC-EP guerrillas.

In this departmental term, 53 percent of the violent deaths occurred during the previous year, according to data provided by Indepaz.