Colombia: Another Peace Signer Is Shot Dead in Guaviare Town

On Sunday, the 21-year-old former combatant of Colombia’s Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) Yeison Sarmiento was shot dead in Guaviare town, southeast Bogota. He was under  special constitutional protection since he signed the FARC and Colombian 2016 State Peace Agreement as a minor.

RELATED: 

The Duque Administration Arrests 134 Colombians

Sarmiento was taken to the San Jose del Guaviare Hospital where he arrived without vital signs. With him, 280 ex-guerrilla fighters who signed the Peace Agreement have been murdered so far in Colombia.

The far-right paramilitary gangs Eastern South Block and Gaitanist Self-Defense Forces, which are dedicated to drug trafficking and illegal cattle ranching, operate in the Guaviare region. Besides mass-murdering FARC ex-combatants, these groups displace local farmers under death threats to gain territory.

Human rights defenders warn that the growth and power of the paramilitary groups have to do with the premeditated non-compliance with the peace accords by President Ivan Duque.

The Institute for Development and Peace Studies has warned about the high risk experienced by inhabitants in rural areas because of the territorial disputes of paramilitary groups, whose violent actions also target social leaders.

On Sunday, the President of Las Aguilas Communal Action Board Jean Rodriguez was also shot dead in El Carmen municipality. 

So far this year, Colombia has witnessed 58 massacres, 101 social leaders’ assassinations, and 31 murders of ex-combatants.