Colombia Activates Search for Murderers of Social Leaders

On Thursday, Colombian Defense Minister Ivan Velasquez presented a new strategy to strengthen cooperation between the Military Forces and the Police to arrest 481 people wanted for murders of social leaders.

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More specifically, the strategy covers crimes that have occurred since 2016, when the State signed a peace agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

The investigation of crimes against human rights defenders and former FARC guerrillas will involve greater collaboration between the police, the Attorney General's Office, and the Army.

So far, authorities have recorded the murder of 950 human rights defenders and 387 former guerrillas. These figures, however, are lower than the 1,461 social leaders counted as murdered by the Institute of Development and Peace Studies (INDEPAZ).

Colombian authorities will offer rewards of over US$800,000 so as to expedite the work of arresting 481 criminals who have search warrants.

"We are sure that the investigations' results will be much stronger during the administration of Luz Camargo, the new Attorney General," the Colombian defense minister said.

"Camargo has been in NGO-backed investigations related precisely to homicides of people in the process of reintegration and human rights defenders," he added.

The authorities have issued arrest warrants for 50 members of the National Liberation Army (ELN) and for 71 members of the Gulf Clan, which is the main paramilitary group linked to international drug trafficking. There are also arrest orders for FARC dissidents.