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News > Colombia

Colombia: 281 Ex-Guerrilla Fighters Murdered After Peace Accord

  • The banner reads, “Duque: We didn’t sign the Peace Agreement to be killed,” Colombia.

    The banner reads, “Duque: We didn’t sign the Peace Agreement to be killed,” Colombia. | Photo: Twitter/ @Col_Informa

Published 10 August 2021
Opinion

The Federation of Education Workers denounced that paramilitary groups pose serious risks for risks for the social leaders and former guerrilla fighters.

On Monday, the Institute for Development and Peace Studies (INDEPAZ) denounced the assassination of Hernan Vazquez, an ex-guerrilla fighter who signed the 2016 Peace Agreement. His body was found with bullet wounds in El Paujil municipality, in the Caqueta department.

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Vazquez, who was attending the Medical School in Cuba, had asked for a license to travel to Colombia for a few weeks and was expected to return to this Caribbean country on Aug. 28. "He is the 281st former guerrilla killed while the State remains indifferent. We demand Peace!" Senator Victoria Sandino stated. 

The Ombudsman’s Office had previously warned that the Gentil Duarte and Fernando Diaz paramilitary groups operate in the Caqueta department, where they threaten and murder the population so as to gain new territories for drug trafficking activities.

So far this year, 33 signatories of the Peace Agreement have been killed as part of the territorial disputes among armed groups. On Monday, five teachers working at Cartagena del Chaira rural area also had to leave this territory because of the armed groups' threats against their lives.

This case was handed over to the National Protection Unit, which will decide whether the teachers should return to their territories or be transferred to schools in different places.

In a document sent to President Ivan Duque's administration, Colombia's Federation of Education Workers (FECODE) denounced that the operation of paramilitary groups generates serious risks for the social leaders and former guerrilla fighters who reside in the departments of Cundinamarca, Nariño, Tolima, and Cauca .

FECODE also criticized the far-right president for remaining indifferent to the demands of the National Strike Committee and tolerating police brutality in the country.

 
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