Colombia’s INDEPAZ Denounces Murder of Another Peace Signatory

Colombia's Institute for Development and Peace Studies (INDEPAZ) on Monday denounced the murder of Velasco Palacios, the 43rd signatory of the peace agreement to be killed in the year now ending. 

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According to the Institute, Palacios was killed the day before by an unknown subject when he was in the neighborhood of La Elvira, municipality of Corinto, Cauca.

INDEPAZ said further details of the murder are unknown and added that this is the 43rd murder of a peace signatory during 2022 while since the 2016 Havana accords the figure records 348.   

INDEPAZ denounced the presence of illegal armed groups in the municipality of Corinto, recalling its previous warnings about the increased risk to demobilized ex-combatants and those in the process of reincorporation.

John Janer Velasco Palacios 12/25/22 Corinto, Cauca. He was a signatory of the peace agreement, who was currently carrying out his reincorporation process in the north of the department of Cauca.

With Jhon Janer there are 43 signatories of the agreement assassinated in 2022 and 348 since the peace agreement.

The Colombian institute said that these criminal organizations, although focused on their economic interests, coerce the population, thus affecting the organizational social fabric in the northern part of the Cauca.

Since November 2019, the Colombian Ombudsman's Office issued an alert in the area, which also included the municipality of Carloto. This alert aimed to demand that the State exercise territorial control to curb the influence of armed groups.