Four men were killed yesterday in western Colombia, in the second massacre in less than a week in the area and the fiftieth since it entered 2021.
“Three people were killed by gunfire (…) by criminals” in the rural community of Abalema, Tolima district (west), while a fourth “succumbed to his injuries” after being taken to a health center, said police chief Rolfe Jimenez, chief of staff. of law enforcement forces in the area, in a press release issued by his services.
Two people were killed while riding a motorcycle and two others were targeted because “apparently they were eyewitnesses” to the killings, the police officer added, without going into details about the perpetrators or their motives.
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Three people were killed Sunday in the nearby town of El Espinal, including two Venezuelan nationals.
The independent Indepaz Observatory counts 50 massacres – the simultaneous killing of at least three people, as defined by the UN – that have been committed in Colombia since the beginning of the year.
Recently, the massacres have multiplied, despite the peace agreement signed by the then government and the former rebel organization Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in 2016.
FARC insurgents rejecting the peace deal, militant groups re-forming disbanded far-right paramilitaries and gangs of thugs are competing for revenue from the trafficking of illicit drugs and minerals, blackmail and other illegal activities.
