Two more FARC members killed in Colombia

Bogota, March 19 (RHC)-- Two former combatants of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC-EP), Belle Carrillo and Irnel Florez, were killed Tuesday in the department of Caqueta, in southwestern Colombia, marking 18 deaths so far in 2020.

"The extermination does not stop... The number of former combatants killed rises every day,” Colombian Senator and former FARC leader Pablo Catatumbo said on Twitter.  

Florez and Carrillo were signatories of the Peace Agreement in 2016.  With their murder in San Vicente del Caguan, there are now 190 former combatants killed, after the signing of the historic agreement between the rebel group and the Colombian government.

Social sectors rejected this new violent action and renewed calls for the government of President Ivan Duque to end this systematic extermination against ex-FARC, social and Indigenous leaders.  The Colombian Alternative Revolutionary Force of the Common’s party (FARC) urged last Wednesday for the end of what it considers extermination against ex-guerrillas in the process of reincorporation into civilian life.

Likewise, the party called for a prompt investigation to clarify the murder cases. Social organizations have indicated a problem in this matter as in the case of killings of human rights defenders, the sentencing rate reaches only 11 percent.

The United Nations warned on December 31st of last year that at least 77 ex-guerrilla members were killed in Colombia during 2019, reported 14 disappearances and 29 attempted killings.  The U.N.’s Special Rapporteur Michel Forst highlighted the impunity of the murders of social leaders and the lack of preventive administrative measures against the crimes.
 
Edited by Ed Newman