Emberá Chamí People of Cañamomo Lomaprieta Indigenous territory condemns killing of yet another community member

April 2026

Amidst escalating violence and conflict in Colombia, the Indigenous Emberá Chamí communities of the Cañamomo Lomaprieta Reserve of Colonial Origin (RCMLP) located in the Municipalities of Río Sucio and Supía, Caldas, have publicly condemned the killing of community member and mine worker Ivan Marino Ruiz, who was gunned down in cold blood in his own home by two unidentified attackers on 26^th April – see statement here. 

In the wake of the recent tragic murder of Indigenous Council authority José Albino Cañas Ramírez in February this year, and in the context of growing and incessant violence, killings and insecurity, the authorities of the RCMLP territory have issued a further public denouncement of ongoing murderous attacks against their communities. 

The statement again calls on Colombian justice authorities, Public Ombudsman Office, Police and the Ministry of Home Affairs to develop and roll out an urgent roadmap for collective self-protection for all communities and leaders in the territory in close collaboration with the territorial authorities, including targeted support for the Guardia Indígena who risk their lives daily to defend communities from harm, intimidation and attacks against their physical and cultural integrity. Specific demands include, among others:

• The need for the Public Ombudsman office to issue an Early Warning Alert and accompany the communities in the territory to verify the vulnerability of human rights and the scale of severe risks of further violence and attacks;
• Rapid and robust investigations by the judicial authorities into the author of the killing of Ivan Marino
• Urgent review by the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights into Colombia’s current compliance with Precautionary Measures issued more than two decades ago, which require protective actions by the State to safeguard human rights and prevent atrocities and further massacres of RCMLP communities
• Immediate assessment of human rights risks and publication of a statement by the UN High Commission for Human Rights in Colombia, condemning ongoing attacks and insisting on concrete measures to reduce risks to security and enjoyment of human rights in the RCMLP territory

Violence and conflict spiralling out of control across Colombia: In the run up to Presidential elections at the end of May, 2026 is already turning out to be the most violent year in Colombia in a decade. The recent atrocity in RCMLP territory is part of a deadly pattern of increasing violence in the country where this year alone there have been more than 30 massacres across 34 rural and urban municipalities resulting in hundreds of fatalities.  In 2026, Indigenous Peoples, Afrodescendant communities and rural populations and their territorial defenders are suffering increasing repression, including restrictions on their freedom of movements, known locally as ‘confinement’ by dissident armed groups, paramilitaries and drugs and illegal mining mafias who control the ‘means of coercion’ in vast swathes of the country, including in the Cauca and Southwest region, in the so-called coffee belt, the Caribbean coast and across much of Amazonia. 

Demands on Colombian state to fulfil human rights obligations: Indigenous governments including the RCMLP authorities continue to demand state and global action to end impunity for the perpetrators of crimes of homicide and repression against their peoples and communities. Crucially, they demand that more effective measures are implemented by the Colombian State to comply with its existing and longstanding legal obligations to ensure the physical, cultural and spiritual survival of their peoples and integrity of their territories, including under Ruling Auto 004 of 2009.

Further information:

RCMLP Facebook post 

Colombia Massacre Watch - Indepaz 

Report on recommendations on the situation of human rights defenders and social leaders in Colombia - The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR)

Warnings that violence could impact electoral process - Justice for Colombia 

Indigenous leadership under attack in Colombia - CoDev

Violence escalates in Colombia with dozens of attacks before presidential vote - NPR

Brutal terrorist attack in Colombia exposes the standoff between armed groups and the state  - El País 

Protecting territories, risking life – Violence against Indigenous Peoples in Colombia - CNTI