Colombia: Paramilitaries Execute Social Leader in Bolivar

Colombia’s Congress of the Peoples (CdP) social and political movement Saturday denounced two assassinations in the municipality of San Pablo Sur de Bolivar.

RELATED:

Colombians Mobilize in Response to Endless Massacres

Fernando Gaviria or 'Panadero', a leader of the CdP and of the National Agrarian Coordinator (CNA) was killed along with Omaira Alcaraz or 'Cachi', a local leader of Township of Cerro Azul, Alto San Juan village, who is also a FARC party member.

Two hooded men arrived at 21h30 with uzi-type weapons and entered Omaira’s home where she and her entire family were tied up.

The men then headed out to where Fernando was working as a shopkeeper in an establishment. Upon entering the store, one of the men ordered him to go to Omaira's house, but he refused to go and was immediately shot in the abdomen.

The gun then jammed, providing him an opening to run for his life, when they shot him in the head with another gun, for a total of seven shots, leaving him dead.

The men then returned to Omaira's house and murdered her.

The assassinations take place in the context of an ongoing genocide against social leaders and a wave of massacres across Colombia, as the internaitonal community observes International Day of the Victims of Forced Disappearance.

The Congress of the Peoples denounced in its statement that once again “paramilitarism brought death to our territories” and said that the national government has failed to act against these groups as Colombia experiences a genocide.

As of 10h30 on Sunday, the community is still waiting for the arrival of the authorities tasked with initiating the investigations.

On Saturday, the Revolutionary Alternative Force for the Commons party, the FARC party, reported that Jorge Ivan Ramos, a signatory of the Colombia Peace Accords, had been killed on the afternoon of Friday, August 28th, in a nearby region of the Department of Bolivar.