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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Colombia-Indigenous-Leader-Murdered-in-Narino-20220801-0023.html">telesurenglish.net</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Colombia: Indigenous Leader Murdered in Nariño</h1>August 1, 2022<br></div>
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<img src="cid:ii_l6cd58wl0" alt="image.png" width="458" height="260"><br><br><p>The Institute for
Development and Peace Studies (Indepaz) confirmed Monday the murder of a
social and indigenous leader in the Colombian department of Nariño
(southwest), who became the 109th to be murdered so far in 2022 and the
1336th to lose her life violently since the signing of the Peace
Agreement at the end of 2016.</p>
<p>María Verónica Pai Cabeza was part of the Piguambi Palangala
indigenous reservation of the Awá community. She was killed with five
shots, and her body was later abandoned on the public road in the
Vaquerío village, co-arrangement of Llorente, thus preventing the
community from helping her.</p>
<p>She was six months
pregnant when she was murdered, and her death left two children
orphaned. In a statement rejecting the crime, traditional Awá
authorities of the reservation above denounced the physical and cultural
extermination to which they are subjected by illegal armed groups
disputing the territory.</p>
<p>They said that they
have requested governmental support to contain the murders, massacres,
forced disappearances, displacements, confinement, and mobility
restriction but have only received it in response to the complicit
indifference of the Colombian State.</p>
<p><strong>SOS Massacre Awá, in Altaquer, Barbacoas Nariño kill 4 indigenous Awá and 2 more wounded.<br> And she was Veronica Pai, six months pregnant; she is the 5th indigenous Awá murdered today in Nariño, in Llorente, Tumaco.<br> They are exterminating our indigenous people, and everyone looks the other way!</strong></p>
<p>A representative to
the Chamber of Deputies for Nariño, Erick Velasco, called attention to
the fact that this department has registered a total of three massacres
and 12 murders of leaders in 2022, for which he urged to "put a stop to
the violence and provide guarantees for life."</p>
<p>For its part, the
Ombudsman's Office warns of the risk that indigenous authorities in
Nariño run when they try to exercise their own government, oppose the
development of illegal activities, participate in land restitution
processes or implement projects to substitute illicit crops.</p>
<p>According to the
Ombudsman's Office, indigenous leaders are intimidated and threatened by
illegal armed actors in these cases. Among those in the area, they
point to the Comandante Alfonso Cano Western Bloc, the Oliver Sinisterra
Front, Los Contadores, and the Urias Rondon Mobile Column.</p>
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