“Ana bears on her body the marks of the wars which mercilessly crossed the [région du] Choco. In this desolate land, where pain takes root and persists, women are still and always victims of violence which explodes with force and attacks them.” writes the newspaper The Spectator.
Like 26 other women, she was included in a macabre list attributed to drug traffickers from the Clan del Golfo, who seek to extend their influence in this forgotten department in the northwest of the country, on the border with Panama.
This group born from the ashes of far-right paramilitary groups is accused of having organized a “feminicide plan”, consisting of assassinating the mothers, daughters, companions or collaborators of its enemies, mainly local gangs having granted a truce to the Colombian government to allow progress in peace negotiations.
It is about establishing a reign of terror at any cost and “punish the enemy”, assure Adriana Benjumea, co-director of the regional center for human rights and gender justice. “I don’t want to say that there aren’t women directly involved in the war, but in general they are victims of reprisals,” continue the militant.
The threats materialized on August 3 with the assassination of a 14-year-old girl. Then with the murder, on August 28, of Luz Berilia Chalá, activist and mother of a gang member, murdered in Quibdó, capital of Chocó. Days later, another woman was killed and nine others injured in a coordinated attack in the same town.
“You have twenty-four hours to leave the city”
In a statement released on September 2, three gangs (the RPS, the Mexicanos and the Locos Yam) declared that they had ended the truce “because of feminicides” who made “several innocent victims”. Suspected of being behind these attacks, the Clan del Golfo denies the facts. But all the clues seem to point in his direction. Among these, images of tortured women and lists of names spreading across social networks.
We can read in one of the messages attributed to the Clan, cited by The Spectator :
“The femicide plan is coming. We have already located almost all the women. […] You have twenty-four hours to leave the city.”
Between April and September, six feminicides were recorded in this department of 595,000 people, 85% of whom are of African descent; 108 homicides were recorded during the first nine months of the year in the region, assures the newspaper The Time.
Ana, whose first name was changed by The Spectator for security reasons, did not wait to be another victim to go into exile. “They will not muzzle my voice,” she says on a daily basis.
