At least five people killed in a new massacre in western Colombia

MADRID, 1 Ago. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Colombian authorities have confirmed this Sunday the murder of five people in the Colombian municipality of La Unión, in Valle del Cauca, in the west of the country.

This has been announced by the Institute of Studies for Development and Peace (Indepaz), which has detailed that a massacre in the middle of a public highway has raised the number of this type of act to 57 so far this year.

According to information collected by local media, a party was being held in the house where the massacre took place, when an unidentified group attacked them, leaving five dead and five injured, one of them in serious condition.

The local mayor, William Palomino, has detailed that the Police are carrying out the necessary investigations into the motives and possible perpetrators of the massacre. He also added that an extraordinary security council will take place in the next few hours to examine what happened.

The massacre occurred days after a similar event that took place in the municipality of Espinal, where three people were executed -two of them Venezuelans-. In this context, a Security Council is scheduled to be held this Thursday.

Among the victims are Putumayo Puerto Caicedo, a signatory to the peace agreement between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in 2016, who was currently undergoing his reincorporation process in the department of Putumayo.

Likewise, the indigenous leader and member of the Piguambi Palangala group, María Verónica Pai, has also lost her life in the attack.

According to Indepaz data, there are 102 leaders and defenders of Human Rights assassinated in Colombia during 2022, a figure that rises to 1,336 people since the signing of the Peace Agreement.