Another signatory of peace agreement killed in Cauca, Colombia

Bogota, December 27 (RHC)-- Colombia's Institute for Development and Peace Studies (Indepaz) reported Monday the murder of another signatory of the peace agreement in the northern department of Cauca.

According to the communiqué, the victin was John Janer Velasco Palacios, 44 years old, who according to police authorities was killed the day before by an unknown subject when he was in the neighborhood of La Elvira, municipality of Corinto, Cauca.

His death brings to 43 the number of peace signatories this year who have been killed during 2022 and the total up to 348 since 2016, when the then government of Juan Manuel Santos signed a pacification agreement with the then FARC-EP guerrillas, according to Indepaz.

In the locality where Palacios was killed in the municipality of Corinto, there is a presence of illegal armed groups, denounces Indepaz, which recalls its previous alerts.

Since November 2019, the Colombian Ombudsman's Office issued an alert in the area, which also included the municipality of Carloto, to demand that the state exercise territorial control in order to curb the influence of armed groups.

Indepaz also pointed out that these criminal organizations, although focused on their economic interests, coerce the population, "affecting the organizational social fabric" in northern Cauca, which puts demobilized ex-combatants and those in the process of reincorporation at greater risk.