RFI is joining forces with the international investigative consortium Forbidden Stories to resume the work of Rafael Moreno, a journalist killed on October 16, 2022 in circumstances that have not yet been elucidated. His murder is the latest in a long series in Cordoba, northern Colombia, where violence by armed groups clashing for control of territory and resources has been rife for decades. The recurring targets are civilians and in particular community leaders, like Yoli de la Ossa, the indigenous governor.
From our special correspondents in Montelibano,
All, journalists and activists, had warned: of all the towns in the south of the department of Cordoba, Montelíbano is the most dangerous. It is here that Rafael Moreno, investigative journalist, was murdered in a restaurantafter his close guard mysteriously took their leave.
In another restaurant, RFI has an appointment with Yoli de la Ossa, the governor of the indigenous council Zenú Bello Horizonte. She arrives with a smile on her face and four bodyguards at her heels. ” Two of them belong to the National Victim Protection Unit. And two are members of the Native Guard,” explains the one who confides that she does not have complete confidence in the State to protect her.
In this region, one of the most violent in the country, are concentrated the activities of illegal armed groups, those of the large mining industries and, in the middle, an unleashing of violence that often targets civilians.
” My community has been victim of homicides, displacements and threats “, she lists. His brother-in-law was murdered by guerrillas [des Farc] and his brother, by the paramilitaries. ” It was Mancuso she said in a nervous thread of voice, betraying the terror still inspired by the former leader of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) : he would have ordered the two massacres perpetrated against his community at the end of the 1990s.
The native chief unfolds the story carefully. ” The paras perpetrated the first massacre on September 8, 1998. The second, a year later, on March 25. This time they killed eight people and gave us 24 hours to leave our territory. They said if we don’t go they’ll kill us all. »
The 74 families in his community joined the 100,000 people displaced by massacres between the 1980s and the early 2000s in southern Cordoba. Between 2016, the year of the peace accords, and 2020, 37 members of civil society were killed.
Legal mining and illegal groups in the same territory
” We lived in an area of parks “, she says with a certain nostalgia. A reference to the Paramillo National Natural Park, whose water resources, biodiversity reservoir and forest areas make it the tenth largest protected area in Colombia.
Behind the strategic and complex geography of this region rich in aquifers, ecological and mining resources, coca cultivation and the activities of illegal armed groups thrive. These have, one after the other, replaced the state in the region: the Farc and People’s Liberation Army (APL) guerrillas, then the paramilitary squadrons, and currently the Gulf Clan.
Southern Córdoba is also a haven for large-scale mining. 60 mining titles are currently in force there, by national and international groups, and 180 exploitation applications have been filed.
The exodus of populations led to the abandonment of 11,832 hectares of land between 1996 and 2012. During the same period, 68,832 hectares were granted for mining, according to a study published in 2014.
“ Nobody told us anything ” that ” the mine was so close »
In 2021, the 600 members of the Yoli de la Ossa community are resettled by the State in La Dorada, near San José de Uré. A new life begins… 6 kilometers from the Cerro Matoso SA nickel mine, the largest open pit mine on the American continent.
” We didn’t know the mine was so close. No one told us », Laments Yoli de la Ossa. The community ends up realizing that animal species are beginning to disappear, that banana and pepper crops no longer bear fruit. Its members soon realize that the rainwater, which they are forced to consume for lack of drinking water supply, is also contaminated, as is the rest.
” People began to feel severe itching in the eyes and on the skin, difficulty in breathing. Cases of lung, uterine, stomach and breast cancer have increased”says the chief of the tribe.
Governor since 2004, Yoli de la Ossa has led the fight of her community and after an impact study financed with the funds of the population, she decides to directly challenge Cerro Matoso SA ” They did not listen to us. We therefore organized a two-day demonstration, which was suppressed by Esmad [escadron mobile anti-émeute – NDLR] And finally, we blocked access to the factory, for 38 days”says Yoli, with pride.
But that’s nothing compared to the fight they will lead in court.
► Read also: Colombia: a mining giant above the law?
A community absent from the opinion of the Constitutional Court
In 2017, the Constitutional Court recognized the responsibility of the mining group Cerro Matoso SA in the damage caused to the environment and to the health of neighboring populations. But the following year, the latter managed to cancel the order which forced him to compensate the victims.
There remains the obligation to provide permanent medical care to the communities and to consult them before each new project. Except that the community of Yoli de la Ossa does not appear in the opinion of the Constitutional Court.
” If she covers San José de Uréwhich is at the border of the mine’s area of influence, why not us? she always wonders. ” Res judicata “, answer the magistrates to the lawyer who accompanied the community, Me Pedro Villamarin: “ They don’t even give us the reasons for this exclusion. They won’t back down he says, sorry.
Night falls, it is time to leave Montelibano. Before leaving, RFI asks Yoli de la Ossa how people in her community are doing. ” There are respiratory problems and people are dying of cancer. My husband died at the age of 56 from cancer that ate away at his lungs. My sister has just come out of chemotherapy. Three children were born without anus and with both sexes. Some without a palate, with only one eye or one ear. One of them is my grandson “, enumerates the governor.
According to her, medical studies carried out on the families of these children rule out genetic causes. ” We would like to scientifically investigate the origin of these pathologies. But it costs a lot of money. And we don’t have any », she laments, before leaving us and disappearing behind the silhouettes of her four bodyguards.
► Read also: In San José de Uré, the endless damage of the nickel mine