Colombian Social Leader Shot a Day After 'Defend Peace' March

By teleSUR

29 July 19

Colombian social leader Yisella Trujillo and her husband were shot dead less than 24 hours after an international march calling for an end to murders of social activist in the country.

isella Trujillo, a social leader from Colombia was murdered Saturday, less than 24 hours after a march took place against the mass murders of Colombian social and community leaders including members of the People's Alternative Revolutionary Force of Colombia (FARC).

Trujillo and her husband were shot at in Puerto Rico, Caqueta Saturday. She died at the spot and her husband died while the first respondents tried to save his life. 

Puerto Rico’s ombudsman Herner Carreño told local media that Trujillo and her family reported death threats for trying to reclaim their dispossessed land back from where they fled during the armed conflict.

Mayor Hernan Bravo said, “we hope that with the accompaniment of all the institutions we will be able to clarify this regrettable incident that we reject and repudiate.”

Since the 2016 Peace Agreement was signed between former President Juan Manuel Santos and the FARC, at least 710 social leaders and 138 ex-guerrilla fighters have been murdered by paramilitary forces that have close ties to Colombian far-right politicians and drug cartels. 

The Defenders of Peace (Defendamos La Paz) organization had called for the march against the continuous violence and threat faced by Colombian social leaders. 

In over 100 cities around the world, demonstrations were held Friday to support Colombian social organizations, demanding President Ivan Duque put the accord into practice and guarantee the safety of human rights defenders and social activists in the country.

This international mobilization was an unprecedented organizational effort by human rights defenders worldwide who seek to prevent Colombia from continuing its current endemic violence against Indigenous and Campesinos in rural areas trying to recuperate their land and lives after a 50-year civil conflict supposedly ended in 2016.