Colombian Indigenous people still being massacred Debora Barros is a Colombian indigenous leader, lawyer and member and representative of the Wayuu community, which is the largest indigenous nation in Colombia. She is a survivor of a massacre which occurred in April 2004 when a group of paramilitaries arrived in the lands where the earth where the indigenous community of Debora's family is located. In front of the community they assassinated and butchered 12 people (children and adults) and took away another 30. Altogether, 42 people died in that massacre. Amongst those butchered was the Debora's family. She was able to survive. After the murders, the paramilitaries threatened the rest of the indigenous community telling them that if did not leave that land immediately, they would kill them in the same way. The tribe was completely displaced and they are now hiding in Venezuela. Colombia's mining union, SINTRAMINERCOL is investigating this massacre, as the lands of the Wayuu nation are precisely located in territory which has the richest coal deposits in the whole of Latin America, that are operated and exploited by BHP Billiton and two other multinationals. What is happening to the Wayuu people is typical of what has been happening to indigenous and rural communities in Colombia.  Their lands are of interest to multinationals; they are 'moved off' their land often by violent means by paramilitary groups - and then a couple of years later, the multinationals can expand their activities in those lands. At the moment there are more than 3 million Colombians (farming, indigenous and black communities) who are internally displaced. After these displacements, a great part of the lands they were forced to abandon were soon occupied by diverse multinationals for the operation and export of natural resources, like gold, oil, coal, etc.