Bogotá: The massacres and murder of social leaders in Colombia increased in the first quarter of 2022 in relation to the same period in 2021, the Institute of Studies for Development and Peace (Indepaz) confirmed today, Prensa Latina publishes.
According to the Observatory of Human Rights and Conflicts of Indepaz, from January to March of this year, 48 leaders and human rights defenders were assassinated, a figure higher than the 42 last year in the same period.
Meanwhile, from March 1 to 30, 2022, 27 massacres were perpetrated with a balance of 94 fatalities, while in the same period of 202, there were 23 massacres with 84 deaths.
The Indepaz Observatory specified that in this first quarter there was a slight decrease in the murder of former guerrillas who signed the peace: 11 compared to 14 last year.
Colombia is experiencing a spiral of violence that, in addition to the systematic murder of social leaders, ex-guerrillas in the process of reincorporation and massacres, there are also explosive attacks, such as the recent one in Bogotá where two children lost their lives.
To this is added the murder of 11 people in Puerto Leguízamo (Putumayo) allegedly at the hands of the army and who were presented, even by the Defense Minister, Diego Molano, and the country’s president, Iván Duque, as “casualties” of the dissidence of the extinct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (the false positive modality).
In this last event, according to a testimony that narrated the details to Contagion Radio, the military murdered people who were enjoying a bazaar where funds are collected for community activities and the army entered shooting, murdering several and others tried to leave the place, some by land or by jumping into the river.
The troops finished off the people in the water and did not pay attention to those who were injured and several of them died before the eyes of the soldiers. One of the victims is the indigenous governor Pablo Panduro Coquinche.
According to complaints and what was narrated to Contagion Radio, the military tried to fix the crime scene to justify the murders and implanted rifles to be able to ensure that the dead belonged to the so-called “border commandos”, however, the implanted weapons were not near the bodies of those killed.
On the other hand, the military troops did not allow the entry of the relatives of the people who were in the community bazaar and tried to hide what was happening there.