José Eduardo Boscán Epinayú and Manuel Salvador López Fernández were murdered on February 3 in the village of Santa Cruz, Maicao municipality,
in the northern Colombian department of La Guajira by members of the rightwing
paramilitary United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC). Epinayú and
Fernández were leaders in the Epinayú clan of the Wayúu.
Their bodies were found with AUC markings drawn on their clothing. The Communities
of the Wayúu People in Civil Resistence attribute the violence to the
AUC’s desire to control all gasoline sales—both indigenous men peddled
gas for a living. The National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC) denounces
these latest murders, which has brought the death toll of the Wayúu to
11 people this year.
