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The number of selective killings of social and indigenous leaders, human rights defenders, and ex-guerrillas in Colombia is increasing almost daily without an effective government response, Senator Sandra Ramirez denounced today.
The legislator for the Revolutionary Alternative Force of the Common (FARC) party reported on her Twitter profile the violent death of Liberal Party councilman Fermiliano Meneses, and said that with his murder there were nine leaders and human rights defenders whose lives were taken in the days leading up to 2021.
Local media confirm that Meneses was held by an unidentified armed group and then killed, allegedly "for leading several social processes that precisely led him to obtain the support of his community to be elected as a councilman," says the radio station LaFM.
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The event took place in Argelia municipality, Cauca department, one of the regions most marked by violence from armed groups and drug trafficking in Colombia.
Senator Ramírez once again asked the President, Iván Duque, to take action by demanding that his government stop what he considers a form of extermination.
The senator for the Cambio Radical party and former governor of Cauca, Temístocles Ortega, also raised his voice to condemn the incident.
Atención: Asesinado Fermiliano Meneses, concejal del municipio de Argelia, Cauca. Un grupo armado lo raptó en la vereda "El Pinche" y posteriormente fue asesinado según confirmó la comunidad pic.twitter.com/TdzyA1OQkz
— Contagio Radio (@Contagioradio1) January 16, 2021
Algeria is a territory that does not belong to the Colombian state, everybody knows that, but they do nothing to stop the war in a municipality where death is a daily occurrence," said Ortega after the death of Meneses.
In the last 24 hours, the murder of cultural promoter and defender of the rights of Afro-descendants Fredman Herazo in the municipality of La Apartada, department of Córdoba, was also reported.
The departmental police attributed the responsibility for the death to two men on a motorcycle whose identity is still unknown.
The murder was repudiated by other cultural promoters, defenders of Afro-descendant communities, and political figures such as FARC party senator Victoria Sandino.
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