Colombia: Paramilitaries Murder Community Leader Oswaldo Rojas

The Justice and Peace Commission reported that the paramilitary group "United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia" (AGC) killed community leader Oswaldo Rojas in the Choco Department.

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"On Saturday, people on motorcycles forcibly took Rojas out of his workplace tied up. Hours later, the residents of Carmen del Darien heard gunshots," the Commission stated.

The paramilitaries abandoned the leader's body in a teak tree plantation near the Curvara River basin where he worked the land and developed social actions.

On one occasion, agriculture businessmen intervened 60 hectares of Rojas' property. Later, the small house that he still owned was looted along with its cattle, fruit trees, and agricultural inputs.

Rojas' community has lived under constant threat from the AGC members. Weeks before his murder, the paramilitary group claimed that the leader, who was suspected of having ties to the now extinct Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC), "will rest in peace underground."

In 2016, AGC took territorial control amid the presence of the National Police's military units in the region.

"This proves the government's lack of action to stop the paramilitaries, who are massacring our rural communities with total impunity," the Commission added.