‘Don’t think you are safe’
‘Don’t think you are safe’
By Thomas Mortensen
The text message that Yomaira Mendoza received was menacing. ‘They’ had seen her the previous day, it read, by the river, with los gringos – meaning us, a group of humanitarian workers and journalists visiting conflict-affected communities in Choco, north-west Colombia.
Over the years, the region had been the scene of massacres, selective killings and displacement. It was chilling to realize that those capable of such crimes were apparently watching us – closely.
After we left, Yomaira, whose husband was shot dead in front of her seven years ago, received another text message. ‘We have seen the gringos leave. Don’t think you are safe’, it warned.
Yomaira, the leader of an Afro-descendant community campaigning for the restitution of land lost during the conflict, had already received a string of death threats, including one reading: ‘fighting for land, there will be more than enough on top of you’.
More:
http://newint.org/blog/2014/09/24/colombia-farc-victims/#sthash.WrxfKSjE.dpuf
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