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News > Latin America

Colombia: FARC Decries ‘Criminal Plan’ as 80th Member Killed Since Peace Accord

  • For two years, the peace treaty between FARC and the Colombian government has not been upheld.

    For two years, the peace treaty between FARC and the Colombian government has not been upheld. | Photo: Reuters

Published 7 November 2018
Opinion

Since FARC and the Colombian government signed the peace treaty in 2016, an estimated 50 to 80 ex-militants have been killed.

Fuerza Alternativa Revolucionaria del Comun (FARC) denounced Wednesday what they say is “the beginning of a criminal plan” to kill FARC leaders, former guerillas, and their relatives.

RELATED: 
Edilberto Cristancho: 175th Leader Killed in Colombia This Year

On Nov. 4, Fancy Maria Orrego, a member of FARC and the National Political Council who contributed to the 2016 Peace Agreement between the Colombian government and FARC, was targeted in a shooting outside her residence Sunday.

According to a statement issued by FARC, four people on motorcycles without license plates opened fire on Orrego as she was leaving her home in Medellin. Members of her security team fired back. No one was reported killed or injured.

“A few days ago we received information that the police intelligence agencies had detected plans to attack the leaders of the FARC party. Everything indicates that what happened… in the city of Medellín, is the beginning of this criminal plan,” the statement says.

Since the signing of the peace agreement Nov. 24, 2016, FARC has counted 80 ex-militants who have been murdered. The Prosecutor’s Office has recorded 50 such killings on former members of the group.

“We request an emergency meeting with President Duque,” they added. “We call on all the political parties, the different social sectors, the media and the forces of the nation to express their rejection of this type of aggression,” FARC states.

In rural Colombia, social and community leaders are also targeted and killed with impunity.

Edilberto Cristancho, a palm worker for Aceites Manuelita, was stabbed to death 18 times on Nov. 4. Cristancho was leading a campaign to increase union affiliation in the Llanos Orientales, or OrinoquIa, region. He is the 175th social leader killed in Colombia this year.

Local rights group Research Institute for Development and Peace, or Indepaz, places the number of social leaders in Colombia who have been victims between November 2016 and May 2018 at 385. However, teleSUR’s own monitoring of these cases places the up-to-date number at over 400.

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