“My whole life has changed radically. Even my figure has changed, I gained 30 kilos… » Jani Silva is a figure in the defense of the environment and the rights of the peasant populations of the Putumayo region, in southwestern Colombia. It denounces, in particular, the damage caused by oil exploitation.
This fight made her a target: at the head of a community organization, she has received threats for almost ten years. “Armed groups threaten to kill her to silence one of the strongest voices in Putumayo”The Amnesty International organization was alarmed in 2020. On September 10, Jani Silva again received a phone call promising “blow up his car and everything.”
To try to find safety, Jani Silva abandoned his farm and his town. “I don’t like the city, says from Cali, where he participates in the 16my world conference on biodiversity (COP16). In order not to let those who commit violence win, you must sacrifice your family, your job, your free time. And even if they don’t kill you with bullets, little by little they end your existence as a farmer, with that direct contact that we have with the land. »
As the entire world gathers in Colombia for the COP, the country presents itself as a defender of the protection of biodiversity and calls for “make peace with nature”. However, it remains one of the most dangerous for environmental defenders: in 2023, the British organization Global Witness recorded 79 murders there, that is, 40% of all murders committed in the world.
“Violence and intimidation”
The figure is the highest recorded in any country since 2012, when Global Witness monitoring began. And in the period 2012-2024, Colombia also occupies first place (with 461 murders), ahead of Brazil (401). In addition to the murders, the defenders are victims of “violence, intimidation, smear campaign and criminalization”and many of these acts are never reported.
A UN report, published just before the opening of COP16, confirms this observation: those who defend “the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment” EITHER “rights to land and territory” in Colombia they endanger their lives and personal integrity, writes the local office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
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