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Latin America
Related: About this forumColombia: Ex-Combatant Blanca Monroy Is Murdered in Pereira
The sign reads "They're killing us", Medellin, Colombia, May. 12, 2021. | Photo: EFE
Published 4 September 2021 (4 hours 48 minutes ago)
Monroy's assassination pushed to 36 the number of peace accord's signatories killed so far this year.
Colombia's Institute for Development and Peace Studies (INDEPAZ) reported the assassination of Blanca Rosa Monroy, who was a signatory of the 2016 Peace Agreements.
Monroy was murdered during a meeting in the Pereira department. After fighting in the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army (FARC-EP) militias, she was undergoing her reincorporation process.
INDEPAZ also reported the murder of Maria Lopez Cordon, who was a social leader in the Caño Lindo municipality in the Meta department.
Last week, the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) revealed that 283 former FARC-EP members had been killed in Colombia from 2017 to date.
Lawmakers from the Revolutionary Alternative Force of the Common party (Comunes) and feminist activists expressed their rejection of Monroy's murder while demanding an investigation.
"We reject the assassination of Peace signer Blanca Rosa Monroy. We accompany her family and friends in their pain. Stop the genocide! Not one less! We want Peace!." Senator Sandra Ramirez said.
INDEPAZ highlighted that at least 36 former combatants have been killed so far this year.
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Colombia-Ex-Combatant-Blanca-Monroy-Is-Murdered-in-Pereira--20210904-0005.html
(Short article, no more at link.)
~ ~ ~
Reminder of previous history in Colombia, for leftist revolutionaries:
JUNE 27, 20171:08 PMUPDATED 4 YEARS AGO
Colombia's FARC rebels turn in weapons, end armed war with government
By Luis Jaime Acosta
3 MIN READ
MESETAS, Colombia (Reuters) - Colombias Marxist FARC rebels concluded their disarmament on Tuesday, handing in all but a few of their individual weapons to the United Nations and ending their role in a half-century war that killed more than 220,000 and displaced millions.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC, turned in the remaining 40 percent of their firearms in Mesetas, a mountainous area in southeastern Colombia. The roughly 7,000 former fighters have pledged to continue their struggle as a political movement.
The 7,132 weapons will be stored in containers until they are molded into a monument for peace. Explosives and bigger weapons are being cleared from caches nationwide and a few guns will remain for security at 26 camps until they close on Aug. 1.
Today doesnt end the existence of the FARC, it ends our armed struggle, said Rodrigo Londono, the FARCs top commander, who goes by his nom de guerre Timochenko.
. . .
Although the government promises to provide protection, the FARC is concerned about security. Thousands of former guerrillas were assassinated by paramilitaries after joining a political party during a peace attempt in the 1980s.
More:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-colombia-peace/colombias-farc-rebels-turn-in-weapons-end-armed-war-with-government-idUSKBN19I2IR
~ ~ ~
In Colombia, it's dangerous to be left wing
As Colombian voters prepare to cast ballots in a presidential runoff between right-winger Ivan Duque and leftist Gustavo Petro, the latter candidate's supporters face deadly enemies. Mira Galanova reports from Colombia.
"We have to banish violence as a way of doing politics. They cannot keep killing us because we have different ideas," says Cristian Delgado. He has faced threats for his activism since he was a student leader over a decade ago. "In Colombia, you are at risk for such a thing as defending public education."
The peace deal that the government signed with the country's largest rebel group, the FARC, in November 2016 promised activism would be a safe endeavor. However, some 300 social leaders and human rights defenders have been killed since then, according to figures collected by Marcha Patriotica, a social and political movement where Delgado is a human rights coordinator. The members of the organization appear frequently on the list of victims.
Many have been killed because they went against the interests of organized crime or the powerful rural elite. They championed the substitution of coca the raw ingredient for cocaine and the return of land grabbed during the conflict, denounced illegal logging or opposed mining mega-projects.
Read more: Colombia's cocaine: Who will take charge now?
Guerrilla stigma
Marcha Patriotica brings together hundreds of organizations that represent traditionally excluded sectors of the population peasants, women, blacks, indigenous people, homosexuals. Their goal is to reclaim basic social, economic and cultural rights.
Many members have received death threats calling them "Castro-Chavistas" and "guerrillas posing as human rights defenders."
. . .
The think tank Indepaz has warned there is a risk of repetition of the Patriotic Union (UP) "genocide." Over 3,000 leaders of this left-wing opposition party founded during peace negotiations between the FARC and President Belisario Betancur in 1985 were assassinated by right-wing paramilitaries and security forces in the 1980s and 1990s.
"The goal was to physically exterminate members and the organization itself," says UP member Pavel Santodomingo. At the age of eight, he survived a grenade attack meant to kill his father, a UP leader. He recalls constant pain during his childhood as one family friend after another was murdered.
. . .
https://www.dw.com/en/in-colombia-its-dangerous-to-be-left-wing/a-44131086
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