FARC Slams Duque After Ex-Militant Murdered in Colombia

The ex-combatant of the People's Alternative Revolutionary Force of Colombia (FARC) Anderson Perez Osorio was murdered Monday in the Caloto municipality of Cauca department, prompting his FARC party to issue a statement Tuesday condemning the lack of action by the government of Ivan Duque in the face of such murders. 

RELATED:

Colombia: 3 Indigenous Social Leaders Murdered

Osorio served as a social communicator and community leader in northern Cauca. On Tuesday FARC published a statement criticizing President Ivan Duque's passivity on the rampant murder of former guerillas of FARC since signing the peace agreement. 

Since the signing of the agreements in 2016, former FARC members have been facing persecution by right-wing elements and hitmen all over Colombia, being killed at alarming rates despite having laid down their arms in search of peace. Including Osorio, 136 ex-combatants have been killed.

FARC, in its statement, titled “President Duque, For How Long?” said that the murder adds to the long list of state impunity and non-compliance with the peace agreement. The ex-combatants, trusting in the state, laid down their arms and assumed the challenge of building peace in Colombia.”

FARC also called on political and social organizations to hold a meeting demanding immediate measures against murders of social leaders.

"The members of the National Political Council and members of the National Council of the commons of the party are summoned to an emergency meeting next Friday at 08:00 (local time) at the headquarters of the party in Bogota, where they will determine an answer what he called a "provocative strategy of the enemies of peace," the statement said.