WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS
ISSUE #406, NOVEMBER 9, 1997

NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK 
339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 
(212) 674-9499 

*6. COLOMBIAN INDIGENOUS LEADERS MURDERED 

Bernabela Riondo Pacheco and Santiago Jose Polo Guevara, leaders of 
Colombia's indigenous Zenu community, were murdered on Nov. 2 in San 
Andres de Sotavento, Cordoba. On Nov. 3, the indigenous communities of 
Colombia's Cordoba department condemned the killings; representatives of 
the indigenous council charge that since the murders, members and leaders 
of the council have received constant anonymous threats warning them that 
they have eight days to leave the area. The fate of another Cordoba 
indigenous leader remains unknown: Virgilio Rafael Cardenas Feria, who was 
national director of the Colombian Indigenous Movement (MIC), has been 
missing since he was forcibly abducted by a group of armed men on the 
night of Oct. 31. 

Members of the San Andres de Sotavento reservation said that "heavily 
armed men who presented themselves as members of the army" [or possibly 
of the Dijin, a police intelligence organization] had taken Riondo and Polo 
from their homes. Riondo was an indigenous governor and leader of the 
reservation; Polo was an artisan and a healer. Until 1994 Riondo served as a 
member of the board of directors of the National Indigenous Organization of 
Colombia (ONIC), and at the time of her death she was a member of the 
board of directors of the Regional Autonomous Corporation of the Valleys of 
Sinu and San Jorge.

Indigenous senator Gabriel Muyuy said the same "dark forces" were 
responsible for Cardenas' disappearance and for the murder of Riondo and 
Polo. Muyuy said he will ask the government, the National Conciliation 
Commission and the International Committee of the Red Cross (CICR) to 
intervene to try to get Cardenas back alive. According to a Zenu 
communique, Nilson Zurita, elected on Oct. 26 as indigenous council member 
of San Andres de Sotavento, has left the reservation because the same 
armed men who killed Riondo and Polo went to his house to look for him. [El 
Colombiano (Medellin) 11/4/97, 11/5/97]

Zurita and three other Zenu leaders elected on Oct. 26 in San Andres de 
Sotavento charged on Nov. 3 that they are receiving death threats from 
paramilitary groups. Zurita told RadioNet that the men who came to his 
house on the night of Nov. 1 "certainly were paramilitaries that wanted to 
kill me." "They came to look for me, and because they didn't find me, they 
attacked my brothers and my wife," said Zurita. [El Diario-La Prensa 
11/4/97 from EFE]

At least 70 members of the Zenu tribe have been murdered since 1975 in a 
wave of violence attributed to settlers seeking to take over Zenu land. The 
only person to serve jail time for any of the murders is William Alberto 
Tulena Tulena--a cousin of Senator Julio Cesar Guerra Tulena--who was 
sentenced to 55 years in prison for the May 27, 1994 massacre of four Zenu 
in San Andres de Sotavento. [El Colombiano 11/5/97]