A sniper assassinated one of the reintegration chiefs of now-defunct guerrilla group FARC who had been denouncing death threats in southern Colombia since 2020.
Ronald Rojas was shot dead by a sniper while he was at his farm in Palermo, a municipality in the southern Huila province.
Rojas resigned from the former guerrillas’ political party Comunes, but continued coordinating the reintegration of former FARC members in Huila.
The former rebel also was a member of the commission that sought to resolve disputes with the government over the implementation of the peace process.
The United Nations’ mission chief in Colombia, Carlos Ruiz, deplored the latest assassination of a guerrilla.
Since their demobilization and disarmament, more than 320 of the 13,000 former FARC members who demobilized and disarmed in 2017 have been assassinated, according to think tank Indepaz.
Rojas said in 2020 that former FARC members and farmers who used to cooperate with the guerrillas in Huila were being targeted by an unidentified illegal armed group.
The Constitutional Court ruled earlier this year that the failure of the government of President Ivan Duque to protect the guerrillas was in violation of the constitution.
Duque’s far-right Democratic Center party is a fierce opponent of the peace process.
The reintegration of the former guerrillas is additionally being opposed by groups formed by dissidents who have been trying to take control over territories that were abandoned by the FARC.
