Marino Córdoba Berrio is human rights defender and Afro-Colombian ethnic leader. He is a lawyer of the Universidad Politécnico Gran Colombiano and has a background in Social Management and Community Management, conflict resolution, and negotiation.
He has served as President of the Organización Campesina del Bajo Atrato region (OCABA), an organization that fought for the recognition of territory rights in Afro-Colombian communities in the Chocó Department in Colombia. OCABA was key in the passing of the legislation that recognizes the rights of black communities that have been occupying uncultivated lands in the rural areas.
Mr. Cordoba has also served as a leader and special advisor on Consejo Directivo de Codechocó, representing black organizations of this department in the areas of protection and rational use of the territory, natural resources, environment, and biodiversity as a way of life for their communities and humanity.
He was also a trade union leader in the Urabá region of Antioquia and survived several assassination attempts during the 1990s, when the worst massacres of workers took place in that region of the country. He founded the Asociación Nacional de Afrocolombianos Desplazados (AFRODES) in 1999, an organization aimed at serving internally displaced Afro-Colombians and advocating for their social, political, economic, cultural, and land rights.
In 2002, Mr. Córdoba was forced to leave the country after receiving several threats against his life but returned in 2012 to become a key figure behind creating of a coalition of Afro-Colombian organizations that managed Consejo Nacional de Paz Afrocolombianos (CONPA) and co-authored the formation of an alliance between Afro-Colombians and indigenous people called Comisión Étnicos para la Defensa del Territorio, which influenced peace dialogues between the national government and FARC-EP guerrillas and was included in Capítulo Étnico.
