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Elizabeth Moreno Barco (Togoroma, 56 years old) dreams of dying of old age in her hometown, but war often threatens her dream. At the end of last year, the social leader traveled to Geneva, Switzerland, to receive an award from the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, in honor of her work as a human rights defender of the communities of Chocó, in the Colombian Pacific. More than 9,000 kilometers from home, in the Palace of Nations, Moreno’s heart continued to desire the same thing: to return to live safely with her loved ones in Togoroma, the town from which she was displaced in 2013 due to violence.
For more than 20 years, the woman has spoken out loud about the barbarism to which the Afro and indigenous community of Chocó has been subjected, at the hands of armed groups that still operate in the region. The department still suffers from recruitment, armed violence and confinements imposed by subversive groups, which affected more than 72,000 people in Colombia during 2023, according to UNHCR data. “Peace has not come here,” says the leader with a hint of tears in a hotel in Quibdó, capital of Choco.
In the south of the department, the land where the woman of more than six feet tall was born, is a fertile land bathed by water and surrounded by jungle, which for decades has been surrounded by conflict and the absence of the State. “You have suffered in oblivion since the moment of your creation. You represent poverty, hunger and marginalization,” Moreno sings to her beloved Chocó, along with another dozen community leaders in the hotel auditorium. The women are gathered in Quibdó to celebrate the award she received La Chavaas everyone calls her.
The defender was the regional winner for the Americas of the Nansen Award, a recognition created in 1954 that honors individuals, groups or organizations that carry out extraordinary work to protect and provide assistance to refugees, internally displaced people and stateless people. A vital task in the country with the most displaced people in the world today. According to UNHCR, more than 8.5 million people have had to flee their homes in Colombia due to the conflict, surpassing the records of countries such as Syria and the Republic of the Congo. “Being displaced strips you of everything you know. It is feeling the fear of dying, then fleeing, and then being left in nothingness,” explains Moreno with her hand placed on a golden brooch of the map of Chocó, which she carries in the middle of her chest.
“I am aware of the tombstone that social leaders carry”
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During the tribute, the woman wears a sleeveless vest that reaches the floor with the map of her department and the names of the regions that comprise it. In the folds of her clothes, the coast of San Juan is marked, where Togoroma is located, that territory that has made her overcome the fear of defending others from violence. “I am aware of the tombstone that we social leaders carry on our shoulders,” highlights the woman, who assures that she has never suffered attacks for her work, but she lives with anxiety every day.
Moreno has served as a mediator in the release of kidnapped people and accompanied part of the negotiation process with the former FARC guerrilla in Havana. Her work has involved her in many organizational processes in the region and she now serves as coordinator of the Chocó Interethnic Solidarity Forum (FISH), a space for discussion and integration of different civil organizations in the department that seek to jointly overcome the armed conflict, and guarantee conditions decent life for the population.
“I believe that, if we unite, we can move Chocó and the country forward. Peace is built if we all go in the same direction,” says the leader, who is studying Public Administration at the university. Chava doesn’t want to fight alone. She hopes that her legacy endures and that more women work for the territory. For this reason, through her organization, she plans to establish a school for 30 women who will become leaders in the future. The idea is that her actions have a multiplier effect of change in all the territories of the Pacific that predict a safer and more stable future for the communities.
In this process, Tania González will intervene, who leads the gender table in the San Juan region and who fights for women to be educated and independent. Together with leaders like her, Moreno hopes to sow seeds of change with the mothers of the region, who are the ones who have mourned the most the attacks of violence. “Women have shed the tears of conflict, but we have a conciliatory virtue to be able to overcome it,” highlights the defender.
“We want to honor the role of indigenous and Afro women in building peace in Colombia,” says Mireille Girard, director of UNHCR in Colombia, during the tribute to Moreno and the defenders who work at her side. All the women who applaud Chava’s work fight for their territories in the name of the love they have for their roots. Therefore, beyond accumulating awards, what Chava wants is to guarantee that people in Chocó can live in peace, and in the process, ensure their future return to the town with the certainty of inhabiting the territory in peace. “I can survive anywhere, but I would prefer to stay in the place where I forged my dreams,” concludes the defender with a half smile and an air of uncertainty in her eyes. She does not know if she will be able to enjoy the joys of a peaceful Togoroma.
