Colombia: Social Orgs Denounce Killing of Another Leader

By teleSUR

22 June 20

Lopera was a social activist and the vice president of the Community Action Board of the village of Popales in the rural region of Taraza.

olombia’s social organizations Sunday announced the murder of social leader Edier Lopera, in the northern province of Antioquia.

According to Lower Cauca Farmers Association (Asocbac), Lopera was murdered by an armed group on June 15 near his farm El Diamante, in Taraza, a rural Antioquia region. As the organization said, the murderers threatened Lopera’s family and prevented them from collecting his remains.

Lopera was a social activist and the vice president of the Community Action Board of the village of Popales in the rural region of Taraza. 

"The paramilitary groups that killed him prevented and forbade the authorities from removing his body. This group, in a cowardly way, wants everyone to see his body deteriorate," Sumapaz Foundation spokesperson Oscar Yesid Zapata said.

"The situation of insecurity for the communities in the Lower Cauca is worsening. The recent assassination of leader Edier Lopera, the armed strike decreed by Caparrapos and the confrontations in Nechí demonstrate the continuity of the crisis despite the alerts. Where Is Duque?"

Ascobac alerted about the severe situation of social leaders in Cauca, who are under several threats. So far, in 2020 over 138 social leaders have been murdered in Colombia, 58 of them in Cauca.  

"We impute all the responsibility for these new crimes to the government of President Ivan Duque, for his eternal omission to prevent and protect the people who defend human rights in Colombia, above all because he has been warned in different scenarios of the systematic situation of these murders," Ascobac stated. 

The farmer’s organization claimed protection for Lopera’s family. Ascobac also requested a detailed investigation of the crime and urged Duque’s administration to comply with the Peace Agreement’s premises as well as its constitutional responsibilities in social leaders' assurance.