Emilsen Manyoma (1984 or 1985 - 2017) was a human rights activist from Colombia. [1] Manyoma was of Afro-Colombian descent. She worked for the "Communities Building Peace in Territories" or CONPAZ network in the Bajo Calima region of the country in Valle del Cauca. [2] Manyoma had been an outspoken critic of right-wing paramilitaries and mining and agricultural corporations. [2] Manyoma's work involved the rights of people displaced by drug trafficking. [3] She had also been working for the Colombian Truth Commission, documenting murder and disappearances. [1] She was assassinated in January 2017, along with Joe Javier Rodallega, her partner. [1] Emilsen also worked with Humanitarian Space Puente Nayero which began in April 2014 trying to create a space free from armed groups. [4]
Rodallega's mother told El País that Manyoma and Rodallega had been at home in their pajamas watching a movie with their son on the night of 14 January 2017 when they boarded a taxi, never to be seen again. [5] Their bodies were found three days later in a rural zone of Buenaventura, the city where they lived, in a state of decomposition with stab wounds and gunshot wounds. [6] Both of their throats had been slit, and Rodallega's hands were bound. [6] In the days following her assassination, the FARC issued a statement blaming Manyoma's brother Marco Antonio Manyoma Ocampo, alias Camilo Robledo, for her murder. [7] According to the statement, Robledo had deserted from the FARC with money and weapons and returned to Buenaventura where he killed his sister and her partner. [7] [8] In February 2017, Colombian authorities arrested taxi driver Julio César Valencia Moreno for supposedly participating in the murder, [9] and they arrested Manyoma's brother Marco Antonio Manyoma Ocampo a week later. [10] On 13 February, 2017, a man whose name was not revealed was also arrested and sent to prison for the same case. [11]
Her work against the interests of businesses and paramilitaries were described as the reasons for the murder: [1] Her murder was part of a series of killings of political activists in the country that occurred during the presidency of Juan Manuel Santos: at least 534 activists were killed between 2011 and 2016. [2]