MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Social leaders linked to government coalition murdered in Colombia

Juan Navarro and Luis Peña were murdered last week.

Unknown assassins killed in the last 72 hours two Colombian social leaders linked to the leftist Historic Pact, the government coalition of President Gustavo Petro, in the department of Bolivar, located in the north of the country, members of that group reported Sunday.

The president of Congress, Roy Barreras, denounced that Juan Navarro, leader of Pacto Histórico in the Caribbean municipality of Magangué, was murdered on Saturday night.

“The murder of Juan Navarro Manjarrez, leader of the Historic Pact in Magangué, demands the capture of intellectual authors and identification of the successor of paramilitary groups that are murdering social leaders and that can by day send messages of peace and by night continue murdering,” Barreras said on Twitter.

The municipal table of the Historical Pact in Magangué, meanwhile, detailed that the social leader was killed Saturday night in that town in the department of Bolívar.

Likewise, Luis Peña, who was part of the Historic Pact campaign in Magangué and aspired to the municipal council of Magangué in 2012, was murdered on Wednesday night by hired assassins who shot him in front of his house in Magangué.

Senator María José Pizarro, one of the leaders of the Historic Pact, rejected “the persecution and murder of leaders” of that coalition.

“All my solidarity with the families of Juan Navarro and Luis Peña. These facts demand the necessary investigations and captures,” wrote the congresswoman on Twitter, where she added: “May fighting against corruption and promoting change not cost us our lives.”

In view of this situation, the Prosecutor's Office “prioritized investigations for the homicide of two social leaders of the Historic Pact that occurred recently in Bolivar”.

The Colombian Ombudsman's Office reported on Wednesday 199 murders of social leaders from January to November 30 of this year, which is “the highest figure” since 2016, when this State institution began to make records.

This number even exceeds the figures for all of 2021, when 145 human rights defenders were killed, and those of previous years, including 2020, which was the deadliest year for leaders and there were 182 murders.

EFE