assassinated: social leaders Temístocles Beltrán and Pablo Enrique Rodríguez ¡presente!
Since the November 2016 signing of the Peace Agreement, 1,500 social leaders have been assassinated and many more endure severe safety threats against them and their families. Documented in this letter are the murders of two social leaders killed in the second half of June 2023, bringing the total to more than 80 this year.
June 19: farmer, human rights defender, and community leader Temístocles Beltrán, age 56, was murdered when an armed assailant dressed in military clothing entered his home in the village of Caracolicito, El Copey municpality, and shot him with a firearm.
June 30: Pablo Enrique Rodríguez, president of the Community Action Board of the Anacleto García corregimiento in Tello municipality, Huila Department, was shot to death while traveling with campesino farmer Cielo Ramírez Tovar, who was also killed in the attack.
We are urging that authorities in Colombia enforce demilitarization zones and hold criminal groups accountable for the violence inflicted on non-combatants.