Social leader killed in Cauca

Justice For Colombia News | on: Wednesday, 20 December 2017

On Tuesday 19 December, in the zone of Pan de Azucar, department of Cauca, residents found the body of Alfonso Pérez Mellizo after he had failed to return home from a community meeting the previous evening. He had been shot four times.

Alfonso had been involved in coordinating community actions to demand implementation of the terms of the peace agreement around rural infrastructure and improved health, education and services. He was also active in local resistance to forced eradication of illicit crops and the introduction of voluntary substitution programmes, as stipulated in the peace deal.

Over 130 political activists have been killed in 2017. The Colombian government denies that there is a pattern to these killings and claims they are the result of personal disputes.