A social leader and a former combatant of the extinct FARC were murdered in Cauca during the festive weekend

During this festive holiday, the department of Cauca, in the southwest of the country, recorded the murders of social leader Richard Betancourt and the signatory of the peace agreement Domingo Mancilla Cundumí.

According to preliminary information published by the Institute for Development and Peace Studies (Indepaz), Betancourt was in the vicinity of his home in the municipality of Algeria, when he was attacked by armed men who shot him on several occasions.

The social leader was recognized among the community for his work in favor of the population of the Santa Clara village, in the rural area of that municipality, where he served as president of its Community Action Board. In addition, it was collaborating in aid processes for persons displaced by the armed conflict in that area of the country.

In Indepaz, they also reported that clashes are being reported in that area of the department between the dissident Carlos Patiño of the extinct FARC and the Eln that since last year drug trafficking routes have been disputed.

While in Guapi, already on the Pacific coast of Cauca, former combatant Domingo Mancilla Cundumí, who was one of the reincorporates of the Aldemar Galán territorial space in the municipality of Policarpa, in Nariño, was killed.

In the preliminary information that Indepaz managed to obtain, it is stated that Mancilla was mobilizing through the village of Temuey de Guapi (Cauca), when he was attacked with a firearm.

Prior to these killings, Luis Carlos Bustamante Fernández, social, cultural leader and activist of the LGBTIQ+ community in the archipelago, was assassinated on San Andrés Island.

The body of the 40-year-old cultural leader was found on Thursday night, with signs of torture in the south of the Colombian island. With the murder of Bustamante Fernández, two cultural leaders have already been killed in San Andrés in the last week.

There are 1327 social leaders and signatories killed

A report by Indepaz, in court on March 17, states that there have been 41 murders of social leaders in the country during 2022, taking into account the latest crime of Fabian Pérez Hooker artist and cultural leader on the island of San Andrés. The areas where these types of criminal acts stand out are: Nariño, Cauca, Chocó, Arauca and Antioquia, these being the departments where cases are most recorded.

In the same way, the murders against former FARC combatants are highlighted so far this year, since 9 ex-guerrillas have perished due to the increase in violence, it is important to bear in mind that these criminal acts predominate in areas surrounding points of social reintegration and departments of the Orinoquia.

Since the signing of the Peace Agreement between the National Government and the extinct FARC, 1327 social leaders and signatories of the Agreement have been killed. The study was conducted between November 2016 and March 2022, leaving a chilling figure, following an event that marked a historic milestone for the reduction of violence in the country and the social reintegration of many citizens, who at the time were only familiar with weapons.

Regarding the massacres, 61 people have been victims in 23 acts perpetrated so far in 2022, Indepaz stresses that they are not collective killings, since they should be called massacres, bearing in mind that, in this case, they are intentional homicides simultaneously against several people, stressing that these crimes commit three or more victims who “are in a state of defenseless, and in the same circumstances of time, mode and place”.

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