Organizations Confirm Murder of Social Leader in Colombia

The community of the rural area of the municipality of Suarez, Cauca, confirmed the murder of social leader Larry Reinoso Sanchez, one of the founders of the Association of Peasant Workers of the Cordillera and legal representative of the same during the last period.

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"Our Campesino Coordination expresses its solidarity with his wife Nubia Mosquera and his children, as well as the rest of his family and community," said members of the association.

"Life is a fundamental right that must be respected and violent death is not justified for anyone," they denounced.

According to the Red de Derechos Humanos del Suroccidente Colombiano "Francisco Isaías Cifuentes", the leader disappeared last Monday afternoon, July 18, after a group of armed men arrived in a vehicle and took him away in an unknown direction.

After 72 hours, the community learned that their colleague had been killed with a firearm.

"The bad news came to us from the village of El Amparo, belonging to the village of Betulia, where farmers told us that they had found a body on the road. When we went to the site of the tragedy, we were able to establish that it was Larry Reinoso", said a spokesman.

This finding took place in the afternoon of Thursday, July 21, confirmed the association.

Reinoso Sánchez was a social leader, currently a member of the Association of Peasant Workers of La Cordillera of the municipality of Suárez (Asocordillera), an affiliate of the United Agricultural and Livestock Union Federation (Fensuagro - Cut); of the National Association of Peasant Reserve Zones (Anzorc).

He was also a collaborator of the Proceso de Unidad Popular del Suroccidente Colombiano (Pupsoc) of the Political and Social Coordination Marcha Patriótica.

According to the registry of the Instituto de Estudios para el Desarrollo y la Paz (Indepaz), with the murder of this social leader, 105 leaders and human rights defenders have been murdered in 2022.