Ex-FARC Fighter Killed in Colombia’s Cauca Department.

Carlos Celimo Iter Conde, a demobilised former FARC combatant was killed on Wednesday in the town of Caloto in the Cauca department. Celimo joins the 139 other FARC members who have been killed, despite the fact that the leftist guerillas laid down their arms as per the 2016 peace agreements. 

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Celimo had recently spoken with the government’s ‘Unit for National Protection’, about threats he had received while in a reincorporation camp in Caloto. The perpetrators of the killing are so far unknown. The killing took place just one day before the third anniversary of the signing of the peace accords.

FARC senator Pablo Catatumbo reacted to the killing by commenting, “Another supporter of peace has been killed ...It should NOT be one more statistic. We demand a speedy investigation and guarantees of security for all former guerrillas.”

The killing follows the death of three other FARC members in early September, whereby the ex-combatants were gunned down by hitmen in a city hotel that resulted in two fatalities, Milton Urrutia Mora and Jose Milton Peña Pineda, and a third who resulted injured who were referred to a health center.  

Celimo joins at least 139 other FARC members who have been killed since the signing of the peace accords. The ongoing violence, carried out by the state and right wing paramilitaries, against ex-combatants was among the reasons given by FARC dissidents who recently split from the main organisation to take up arms once again. 

Nevertheless, the FARC has reiterated their support for the country’s peace process, arguing ““The proven noncompliance of the state may not be responded by other failures to comply [with the peace agreement]”.