Six people have been killed while playing soccer in the central Colombian department of Meta, while a further five were executed in apparent gang-related “score settling” in northern Colombia on Tuesday night, Caracol Radio reported.
At about 10:30PM, in an area between the Meta capital of Villavicencio and the Acacias municipality, several men dressed in all in black arrived at a synthetic soccer pitch in a white van and proceeded to fire shots at the men playing.
Six people were killed in the attack, among them Richard Hoyos Alcantara, a journalist for the local Ecopetrol branch.
The motives behind the murders is unclear at this point, with authorities still unsure whether it was part of a specifically targeted assassination.
Five people, meanwhile, were also murdered near the Venezuelan border, in the northern Norte de Santander department, El Espectador reported.
The nature of their deaths at close range and with handguns led police to deem the murders as executions related to “score settling,” either between criminal gangs or within the same one.
The bodies were found in different areas of the Villa del Rosario municipality. Three people have since been arrested thus far.
A female teacher was also kidnapped on Tuesday evening, again on the Venezuelan border, and subsequently taken in to the neighboring country’s sovereign territory. She is thought by authorities to be held by common criminals.
