Although it has been almost ten years since the government of Colombia signed the historic Peace Accords with the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), several armed groups, including dissident factions of the FARC, wreak havoc on local communities as they battle for territorial control.
Last month on the El Bosque farm in Remedios, Antioquia Department, the FARC-dissident faction 4th Front took responsibility for the massacre of four farmers. Armed men entered the Botero family farm, tied up Efraín Botero, his wife Rosa Silva, farm administrator Alexander Restrepo García, and his assistant Leidy María Cáceres Carrillo. Alexander and Leidy María were taken to a separate location and murdered. Efraín and Rosa were separated and killed individually, their bodies left in the pasture. The victims were tortured and burned alive. The armed group also set fire to the house and left behind explosive cylinders, constituting a serious violation of international humanitarian law.
Alexander Restrepo García and Leidy María Cáceres Carrillo had moved to the farm over the past year. They were displaced from Chocó Department, where they lived in one of the humanitarian zones, which are collectively titled territories belonging to the region’s Afro-Colombian communities. The pair had come to Remedios seeking dignified work and escape the violence that has been ruining their home community.
