Seventy indigenous were tortured for no reason by alleged
paramilitaries in the Choco department, native authorities reported
Wednesday.
Armed men entered the Pinchincha community, asked the indigenous for a subject nobody knew of, tied them, beat and shot at them. Ten of the seventy indigenous have serious lacerations in various parts of their bodies.
“They threatened us with a manchete and said: We will kill them all,” Gerardo Mechas, leader of the community and victim of the attack, told Noticias Caracol.
“They fired at me when I was lying on the floor,” Luis Kaibera recounted.
The indigenous left their village of fear for a new attack. Now they live in the town of Jurado in temporary shelters.
Indigenous communities are repeatedly victims of illegal armed groups. The United Nations recently called the situation of indigenous tribes in Colombia “critical.”