Three dead in new attacks against social leaders in Colombia

MADRID, 23 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Two social leaders and the partner of one of them have been assassinated in the last few hours in Putumayo and Arauca, Colombia, according to the authorities and civil organizations.

The social and community leader Sócrates Seviliano and his wife Cielo Ruales have been found dead with gunshot wounds in the village of El Pepino, a rural area in the municipality of Orito, Putumayo.

"We regret this murder of the social leader and his partner, who were apparently killed by firearms," ​​said the Secretary of the Departmental Government, Carlos Gerardo Gonzáles, quoted by the RNC station.

In response to this attack, an extraordinary security council has been held in the municipality of Leguízamo with the presence of the Defense Minister, Iván Velásquez; the Minister of the Interior, Alfonso Prada; the director of the National Protection Unit, Augusto Rodríguez, representatives of the military and police leadership and regional and local authorities.

Velásquez has stated that "with the sensitive death today of the leader of the community action board and his partner in Orito, we hope that the rapprochement of the High Commissioner for Peace with the illegal armed organizations may produce, at this first moment, , a better climate of security, of tranquility".

With the murders of this community leader and his wife, there are now nine people killed in Putumayo in the last 30 days. The authorities of the department investigate the motives and authors of the murder.

On the other hand, the Institute of Studies for Peace in Colombia (Indepaz) has reported the murder on October 21 of Gildardo Alonso Ríos, vice president of the Community Action Board of the village of La Primavera in the rural area of ​​the municipality of Fortul, in the department of Arauca.

"This leader was assassinated on the Fortul-Tame road, in the sector called Agua Viva, in this area his body was found with gunshot wounds," Indepaz reported.

Indepaz has reported that the guerrillas of the National Liberation Army (ELN), fronts 28 and 10 of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and "local structures" have a presence in the area. The area corresponds to the Eighth Division of the Colombian Army.

According to the Indepaz count, since the signing of the peace agreement between the Government and the FARC in 2016, 1,374 social leaders have been assassinated, 147 of them only so far in 2022.