UN Condemns Killings of Ex-FARC Members, Social Leaders in Colombia

By teleSUR

13 May 20

According to the mission, since Colombia began its quarantine six demobilized ex-guerrillas and at least 32 social leaders have been assassinated.

he United Nations Verification Mission in Colombia condemned Saturday the murder of the 24th ex-combatant of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), expressing its “concern” over the systematic killings. 

The Revolutionary Alternative Force for the Commons (FARC) party denounced that Wilder Marin’s body was found “wrapped in a burning mattress” in the northwestern municipality of Bello.

The demobilized ex-combatant was studying to become an accounting assistant in the National Apprenticeship Service (Sena) and was been reincorporated into civil society as an associate to the Cooperativa Multiactiva Tejiendo Paz (Multiactive Cooperative Weaving Peace).

“The mission reiterates its concern, also expressed by the Secretary-General and the United Nations Security Council, for the murders of former FARC members who in good faith laid down their arms, of social leaders and human rights defenders,” a U.N. statement reads.

According to the mission, since March 25, when Colombia began its quarantine due to the coronavirus pandemic, six demobilized ex-guerrillas and at least 32 social leaders have been assassinated.

“Since the signing of the Final Peace Agreement, 198 people have been assassinated while in the process of reincorporation,” the U.N. denounced, urging the government to “deepen measures for the dismantling of criminal organizations in order to guarantee the safety of ex-combatants, social leaders, and human rights defenders.”

On Sunday it was revealed that the FARC  party will request a visit from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to evaluate what they call “systematic extermination” of 198 ex-guerrillas who, according to what they denounce, have been assassinated after the Peace Agreement signed in 2017.