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Sandra Liliana Peña had expressed days before being murdered her rejection of illicit crops increasing in her area.
Violence against social leaders continues its course in Colombia. This Tuesday, the governor of the indigenous reservation La Laguna-Siberia in the Cauca department, Sandra Liliana Peña, was assassinated by armed men.
According to a representative of the Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca (CRIC), Ferley Quintero, killers approached the leader at 07:00 local time in the village of El Porvenir, Pescador. Local media added that the assassins came to her house, forced her to leave, and shot her at gunpoint.
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Quintero said that Sandra Liliana Peña died when she was being taken to the hospital, and on behalf of his organization, he condemned the attack, which he described as cowardly.
In messages spread through the social network Twitter, the CRIC leader added that the governor was preparing to travel to the city of Popayán (departmental capital), where this Tuesday a session of the Mixed Commission with the National Government is scheduled to be held.
Also showing clear signs of rejection of this crime was the Awá indigenous and senator Feliciano Valencia who wondered how many more leaders would fall due to the inaction of the government of President Iván Duque in the face of armed violence.
Horrible news.
— Justice for Colombia (@JFColombia) April 20, 2021
Indigenous leader Sandra Liliana Peña has just been killed in Cauca.
Over 1,100 social activists have been killed since the peace deal in Nov 2016.
How many more must die before @IvanDuque's govt properly implements the agreement's security mechanisms? pic.twitter.com/K17y7b28Wi
Valencia also confirmed that members of the Indigenous Guard were mobilized to locate the perpetrators of the attack by their own means.
For its part, the National Commission of Indigenous Territories regretted the violent death of the young woman. It demanded the Colombian government provide guarantees of life and peace to the leaders in the indigenous territories.
A few days ago, Sandra Liliana Peña expressed her rejection of the illicit crops increasing in her territory and are of interest to illegal armed actors. Indigenous authorities claim that for this reason, she received death threats.
The Institute for Peace and Development Studies (Indepaz) reported on Tuesday that with the murdered governor, 52 leaders and human rights defenders had been murdered in 2021. In total, that would make 1,166 since the signing of the Peace Accord in 2016.
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