US-made riot-control munitions were used by authorities in Colombia at a clash that resulted in the death of indigenous broadcaster Efigenia Vasquez Astudillo. She was reporting on clashes between the state’s Mobile Anti-Riot Squadron, or Esmad, and the Kokonuko people in Cauca State.
The Kokonuko people, in addition to their ancestral occupation of the land, hold a colonial-era title to the area they live in, and are protected by the Colombian constitution. Armed right-wing paramilitary organizations have been trying to usurp the land for resource exploitation, according to a report by Patriotic March and the group Indepaz. According to the same report, one-hundred-one indigenous social leaders and environmental defenders have been killed in Colombia since the beginning of the year, most in Cauca state.
KBOO reporter John Walsh is in Cauca State, in Colombia, and confirmed with pictures that the riot munitions used by Esmad in the recent clashes that killed Astudillo were manufactured in the United States. Two of the manufacturers, as the pictures show, are Combined Practical Systems of Jamestown, Pennsylvania, and Non-Lethal Technologies of Homer City, Pennsylvania.
It is unclear at this point if Esmad has received US training.
We will continue reporting on this story as it unfolds and as we hear more from John in Colombia.