murdered alongside her sister, 17-year-old Reina Zabala
BOGOTA, Jan 2 (NNN-TELESUR) — Seven people were killed and one person was injured in the Colombian city of Buenaventura, the Valle del Cauca department, on the morning of Dec 31, in the 91st massacre of the year 2020.
According to authorities, this was a case of settling of accounts by criminal gangs that are disputing the territory.
The mayor of Buenaventura, Mauricio Aguirre Obando, stated that the crime took place in different neighborhoods of the city. Video circulating on social media purports to show men riding on motorcycles armed with rifles while intimidating the community.
Authorities assure that investigations will be carried out to locate those responsible for the murders.
According to the Institute of Studies for Development and Peace (Indepaz), in 2020 there were 91 massacres in Colombia with 383 victims, in addition to 310 social leaders and 64 ex-combatants murdered.
Indepaz, which has been the main reference since the signing of the Peace Accords in 2016, now begins new counts for 2021, as at least one former FARC combatant and one social leader have already been killed on New Years Day.
Peace Accords signatory Yolanda Zabala Mazo was recorded as the first ex-guerrilla to be killed in 2021 while Gerardo Leon is the first social leader and human rights defender to be assassinated in the new year.
With the closing of 2020, Indepaz reports 1,107 social leaders and human rights defenders killed since the Peace Accords and 250 former combatants. The Institute also records killings by Colombian security forces, for which it reports a total of 78 victims in 2020.
The year begins in Colombia with the painful news of the killing of Yolanda Zabala Mazo and her sister Reina Zabala Mazo, in Briceño, Antioquia. Yolanda was carrying out her reincorporation process at the Territorial Spaces for Training and Reincorporation (ETCR) of Plancha, Anorí, Antioquia.
Yolanda and Reina, 22 and 17 years old respectively, were murdered in the early morning Friday, Jan 1, making Yolanda the 250th former guerrilla killed since the signing of the Accords between the Colombian state and the FARC.
Preliminary information suggests the two were leaving a New Year’s celebration in the village of Travesías.
Yolanda formed part of the ranks of the demobilized and extinct FARC guerrilla, and was known during the war as Liliana Estrada and was pardoned in 2017 by Decree 1096.
Three murders of former FARC combatants and signatories have been recorded in les than a week. Rosa Amalia Mendoza Trujillo, 25 years old, was murdered in the municipality of Montecristo (Bolivar), a victim of a massacre in which four other people died. Manuel Alonso, known in the war as Romel or Carmelo, was found dead in Miranda, Cauca. Both were in the process of being reincorporated.
The FARC party, in a communiqué to the public on Dec 31, says it will continue to work towards peace despite the long list of murders of former combatants and their families.
Meanwhile, Indepaz reports that Gerardo Leon is the first leader and human rights defender assassinated in 2021. — NNN-TELESUR
