A social leader and two peasant workers from a sugar factory, murdered In two incidents in Colombia’s Cauca (southwest) and Norte de Santander departments on the border with Venezuela.
The Mission of the Organization of American States to Support the Peace Process in Colombia (MAPP/OEA) said on social networks Monday that José Antonio Pérez was assassinated in a rural area of Tibú (Norte de Santander). Recalling that Pérez is chairman of the Community Action Board of the Socuavo hamlet, the agency said, “We stand in solidarity with his family and reiterate the call for the State to provide immediate security guarantees to the country’s leaders.”
Meanwhile, the Inauca mill said today that several workers on its Ukrainian farm in the town of Corinto were attacked by “occupiers with firearms”. “The product of this fact, two workers left deadtwo injured and one kidnappedIn a statement, the company also reminded that this fact is “the most serious situation”. a series of attacks on workers’ integrityadded to other attacks, such as the burning of crops, the destruction of occupied machinery and facilities of different characteristics”.
The company has denied attacks on private property since December 2014, whose violence has worsened until “causing the tragedy today”. Likewise, he demanded the immediate release of the “kidnapped worker” and that his life and personal integrity be respected.
At the end of September last year, the Colombian Ombudsman Office warned of an increase in illegal land occupations in various parts of the country and said it had detected 108 cases so far. Illegal land occupation is common in the regions of Antioquia, Atlántico, Cauca, Cesar, Chocó, Guainía, Huila, Magdalena, Valle del Cauca and Vichada. However, the Ombudsman noted that the highest number of land invasions at the time was recorded in the Cauca department, where 36% of cases occurred. Cauca and its neighbor in Valle del Cauca indigenous, black, and peasant communities lay claim to land held by hacendados or sugar mills. they claim historically as their own.