Journalists are among the targets of criminal actions by paramilitary groups in Colombia. | Photo: Facebook Tuliá al Día

Bogota, September 20 (RHC)-- As part of the wave of violence against social leaders and communicators in Colombia, journalist Marco Efraín Montalvo was murdered on Sunday night in the department of Valle del Cauca, in the city of Tuluá.

According to the first versions of the mayor of Tuluá, Jairo Gómez Aguirre, Montalvo could have been the victim of an attack by two hired killers when he was in a commercial establishment in the neighborhood La Esperanza.

With a usual modus operandi, the two criminals were traveling on a motorcycle, one of them got off and shot directly at the victim on several occasions.

The journalist died immediately at the scene of the incident and local authorities arrived at the site to remove the body and begin the investigation to find the whereabouts of the perpetrators.

This murder is in addition to that of three young men in the village of Mateguadua, jurisdiction of the municipality of Tuluá, according to the Institute for Development and Peace (Indepaz), an organization that denounces the persistence of violence in the Cauca region.

The murder was immediately rejected by political leaders of the region and human rights organizations.