The campaign ‘Silence is no longer an option’ began on Sunday in Colombia with the objective to defend the lives of social leaders and signatories of the Peace Accord.
Promoted by the Defend Peace movement, the crusade seeks to renew the commitment to life in this nation where the murders of indigenous people, farmers, former guerrillas are a constant.
‘We believe that one of the best ways to protect their lives lies on the full implementation and observance the Peace Agreement, to put in place its protection mechanisms and security guarantees, and to implement the Development Plans with a Territorial Approach to guarantee that the social problems that have been so often claimed by the social leaders who are victims of this wave of violence are resolved,’ the call highlights.
According to data from the Institute for the Development of Peace in Colombia (Indepaz), in the past six years over a thousand social leaders have been killed in Colombia: 971 since the signing of the peace agreement on November 24, 2016, until July 15, 2020; 572 murders took place during Ivan Duque’s government. Any record that is mentioned shows the horror of the persistence of violence; homicides against social leaders and the weakness of the state and social response to attacks on communities in the midst of the pandemic, said Indepaz in a recent statement.
