Colombia: FARC Denounces Murder of 2 Former Fighters

Two former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) combatants who were reincorporating into civilian life were murdered in the Meta and Nariño departments of Colombia. 

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Mariana Paez's body was found near a camp of Colombia's National Army on Nov. 21 after being disappeared since Nov. 15. The other victim is Angel Aleyser Melendez.

The Common Alternative Revolutionary Force, the party that emerged after the signing of the peace accords in 2016, denounced the two murderes and the fact that criminal structures are gaining power in the department of Nariño despite warnings by human rights organizations. 

According to FARC, these murders put the total toll of former FARC militants murdered since the peace agreement at 84. The Patrotic March and the Research Institute for Development and Peace (Indepaz) have registered 92 homicides in 48 municipalities.

FARC's national political council requested President Ivan Duque to meet with them and discuss effective actions to provide safety guarantees for the demobilized FARC members and the thousands of local leaders who are being murdered and threatened.

However, they have yet to receive an answer from Duque. 

"We will not allow that theft of the lives of those who build peace while paramilitary structures continue to gain strength in the territories recovered by the National Government," FARC said in a statement to the international community and guarator countries.

On Nov. 19, the Colombian government launched a plan to protect social leaders and human rights defenders.

According to Camilo Bonilla, coordinator of the research department of the Colombian Commission of Jurists (CCJ), it is difficult to know with certainty who is behind these murders due to a lack of investigation by a state that responds to political and economic motivations. Human rights defenders point to paramilitary groups that continue to operate in Colombian territory. 

A shadow report on human rights for the United Nations Universal Periodic Review showed that the General Attorney’s Office “lacks an investigation strategy that recognizes the existence of paramilitaries, the systematic character of the attacks, and that the condition of being human rights defenders constitutes a motive.”