Seventeen Colombian social leaders assassinated so far this year

Bogota, Jan 13 (Prensa Latina) In the first few days of 2020, 17 social leaders have been assassinated in Colombia, according to Ivan Cepeda, co-president of the Senate Peace Commission.

Cepeda published the figures on his Twitter account, at a time when frequent violent acts have been reported in the country.

In that regard, he denounced the assassination of Benjamin Banguera, a signatory to the 2016 Peace Agreement between the Colombian State and the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia?People's Army (FARC-EP) guerrillas.

One of the latest violent acts was denounced by the Catatumbo Small Farmers' Association. Social leader Tulio Sandoval, who was participating in the program to replace illegal crops, was killed by armed individuals who broke into his house, dragged him out and shot him repeatedly in front of his family.

Under such conditions, General Prosecutor Fernando Carrillo called recently to stop what he described as systematic assassination of social leaders.

Violence is a constant in Colombia's reality, as threats, attacks, kidnappings and assassinations take place nationwide, practically daily.

All this more than three years after the signing of the Peace Agreement and 17 months since Ivan Duque took office as Colombia's president.