Open letter against impunity for those responsible for the murders of young people in Samaniego, Nariño, Colombia
Mr. Ivan Duque
President of Colombia
Mr. John Rojas
Governor of Nariño
Mr. Oscar Pantoja
Mayor of Samaniego
Citizens of Colombia and other Latin American countries
The members of Workgroup Political Agroecology of the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO)We strongly condemn the murders of young people that have occurred in recent days in Samaniego, Nariño, Colombia. We urge the authorities to investigate and not allow these heinous crimes to go unpunished. Like others before them, these crimes systematically harm families in Nariño, causing great pain and outrage both in Colombia and in other countries in the region and around the world.
In these troubled times, as we globally face the worsening social, economic, and health crisis stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, we believe that youth participation in diverse community initiatives is essential to rebuild the social fabric and encourage collective imagination to construct new resilient and emancipatory practices that shape horizons of hope in the countries of our continent.
We know that various actors have made enormous efforts in the territory, in an effort to advance and deactivate the factors, both objective and socio-historical and cultural triggers of the violence in Samaniego, and that the efforts represented in the exercise of civil society called: Local Peace Pact are recognized.
Therefore, we stand in solidarity and extend our hand to the universities, schools, organizations, and collectives of Nariño. We know that it is precisely the young women and men who bring together technological, academic, and ancestral knowledge to design pathways for building peace and well-being.
We are united with Nariño by the diversity of agroecologies developed by the original Amerindian cultures and perfected by the peasant cultures that have fought for centuries to defend the territories that have fed our towns and cities for generations.
Today, the experiences of young people are essential to confronting the most serious health problem in contemporary history, and it is precisely these new generations who have the capacity and energy to reinterpret the experiences of their ancestors and shape alternative agri-food systems to the food industry, which is largely responsible for the fragile health of the population. Therefore, as an academic group, we have dedicated our efforts to educating and supporting the agroecological initiatives of Latin American youth.
We stand in solidarity with the families who have been victims of this brutal violence against young people in Nariño and we are committed to continuing to promote social and environmental justice processes that foster peace in these territories. We are deeply outraged by the lack of protection and violence suffered by young people in Colombia.
We call upon the national government, led by President Iván Duque, to reactivate peace negotiations with the National Liberation Army (ELN) and to initiate similar processes with the other actors in the conflict in the Department of Nariño. We also call for the implementation of the peace agreement signed with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), especially the first point concerning agrarian reform, which is fundamental to ending the war being waged in these territories. Furthermore, we call for the dismantling of policies that favor extractive industries and, instead, the implementation of an agroecological policy aimed at eradicating the structures of violence that are repeatedly reproduced in the region, and for creating opportunities for young people, on both sides of the armed conflict, to live in peace, as so many Colombians yearn for.
August 19th, 2020
CLACSO Working Group
Political agroecology
This statement expresses the position of the Working Group Political agroecology and not necessarily that of the centers and institutions that make up the CLACSO international network, its Steering Committee or its Executive Secretariat.
