{"id":26,"date":"2019-04-23T16:18:00","date_gmt":"2019-04-23T16:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tierra.local\/?p=26"},"modified":"2021-05-13T21:34:37","modified_gmt":"2021-05-13T21:34:37","slug":"los-guardianes-de-los-parques-que-la-guerra-se-llevo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tierraderesistentes.com\/en\/2019\/04\/23\/los-guardianes-de-los-parques-que-la-guerra-se-llevo\/","title":{"rendered":"The park rangers that the war took away"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Taking care of a national park in Colombia, with its long-standing armed conflict, is a risky and unappreciated job. After years of oblivion, the families of three murdered park rangers could finally understand what happened to their loved ones now that their cases could reach the transitional justice system created by the 2016 peace agreement signed by the Colombian government and the Marxist FARC rebels.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wilton Orrego was patrolling a forest in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta National Park on January 14, 2019, when he was intercepted by unknown individuals and shot five times.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Orrego, 38 years old, died hours later in a hospital in Santa Marta. He left behind his wife and a teenage daughter, along with two years of work as a park ranger in a corner of the Colombian Caribbean where beautiful beaches, bird watchers, and tourists live side by side with criminal groups vying to transport drugs out of the country. His murder highlighted an almost invisible risk in Colombia: caring for the jungles, rivers, high-mountain paramos<\/em> and the natural wealth of the second most biodiverse country<\/a> in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

caring for the jungles, rivers, high-mountain paramos<\/em> and the natural wealth of the second most biodiverse country in the world.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Over the past 25 years, at least 11 national park rangers have died in violent circumstances while safekeeping the natural areas under their care, powerless against the financial interests of multi-million dollar businesses such as drug trafficking, illegal mining, and war.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even though they were dedicated state employees convinced of the value of their mission, the cases of Mart\u00edn Duarte of La Macarena Range National Park, Jairo Varela of Paramillo National Park, and Jaime Gir\u00f3n of Churumbelos Range National Park sadly show a similar pattern: their cases have remained in absolute impunity, their families feel abandoned by a forgetful State and their colleagues continue to work in equally precarious conditions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

their cases have remained in absolute impunity, their families feel abandoned by a forgetful State and their colleagues continue to work in equally precarious conditions<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

However, the signing of a peace agreement with the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)<\/span> in 2016 has opened a window of opportunity to understand what happened to them.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A group of respected environmental scientists and leaders has been working since last year on a proposal for the new transitional justice to investigate the ways in which the environment and its caretakers have been affected by violence, as part of its core mission to investigate and judge the crimes that took place in the context of the Colombian armed conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In two of the three cases, those of Mart\u00edn and Jairo, there is strong evidence that FARC guerrilla members who laid down their weapons two years ago and are in the process of reintegration into civilian life are accountable for their deaths. The FARC could therefore, as part of their commitment to peace, help these families understand what happened and ask them for forgiveness.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n