Authorities in the south of Colombia on Aug. 29 found the bodies of two indigenous leaders who had been shot by unknown assassins. Ramiro Inampues and his wife, Maria Lina Galindez, were reported missing two days earlier, after Inampues failed to attend the regular session of the Guachucal Council in Nariño [2] department, where he held a seat for the Indigenous Social Alliance (ASI [3]). The bodies were found in a ditch in El Común, a pueblo near the border with Ecuador.
ASI is affiliated with Colombia's Green Party [4], which said in a statement that Inampues "together with other indigenous authorities, was preparing the negotiation of the managing of land with the national government." The statement said Inampues and other local indigenous leaders had been receiving death threats by email.
According to Colombia's human rights office (Defensoría del Pueblo [5]), two other indigenous leaders from the same region were also kidnapped the same day by presumed members of paramilitary group Nueva Generación (New Generation). (Colombia Reports [6], LAHT [7], Colprensa [8], Aug. 29)
See our last posts on Colombia [9], the paramilitary terror [10] and the indigenous struggle [11].
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