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Teófilo Manuel Acuña and Jorge Tafur, both leaders of their communities, were assassinated on the night of Tuesday, February 22, the Institute for Development and Peace Studies reported on Wednesday. With these two deaths, there are already 30 social leaders assassinated so far this year, according to the Colombian NGO.
The assassination of social leaders in Colombia does not stop. The last two deaths registered by the Institute of Studies for Development and Peace (Indepaz) are those of social leaders Teófilo Manuel Acuña and Jorge Tafur.
Both were attacked by armed men in the village of Puerto Oculto, in northern Colombia.
Indepaz, the UN Office for Human Rights in Colombia and the Government rejected the crimes. The country’s prosecutor’s office opened an investigation to clarify the double murder.
👥 Name: Teofilo Acuna
📆 Date: 02/22/22
📍 Place: San Martin, Cesar⚠️ With Teófilo Acuña there would be 29 human rights leaders and defenders assassinated in 2022 and 1315 since the signing of the peace agreement. pic.twitter.com/5aBirPuXym
— INDEPAZ (@Indepaz) February 23, 2022
30 social leaders assassinated so far this year
Teófilo Manuel Acuña and Jorge Tafur led the recovery of land usurped from peasants in the department of Cesar, in northern Colombia. The former was a spokesman for the Interlocution Commission of southern Bolívar, while Tafur belonged to the National Board of the National Agrarian Coordinating Association (CNA).
The two men were in Puerto Oculto when they received several bullet wounds from armed men.
With the murder of Acuña and Tafur, Indepaz raises the number of murders of social leaders to 30 so far this year.
“In San Martín, Cesar, Teófilo Manuel Acuña and Jorge Tafur, historical social leaders of Magdalena Medio, were assassinated. Solidarity with their families and the Interlocution Commission of southern Bolívar, central and southern Cesar, southern Magdalena and Procesos de los Santanderes, the NGO wrote on its Twitter account.
👥 Name: Jorge Tafur
📆 Date: 02/22/22
📍 Place: San Martin, Cesar⚠️ With Jorge Tafur there would be 30 human rights leaders and defenders assassinated in 2022 and 1316 since the signing of the peace agreement. pic.twitter.com/sFuLjT9nwM
— INDEPAZ (@Indepaz) February 23, 2022
For its part, the Southern Bolívar Agro-Mining Federation published a statement: “Armed men arrived at the house where they were and proceeded to shoot at the two companions, causing their immediate death. Two days ago, the Cisbcsc (Interlocution Commission of the South of Bolívar, Center and South of Cesar) had denounced that peasant communities of that district were being harassed and threatened by violence, the police, the mayor of San Martín and a person from name Wilmer Díaz, well-known landowner of the municipality”, says the document.
The UN Office for Human Rights in Colombia also reacted to the assassination of the social leaders and “urged the clarification and punishment of the perpetrators – material and intellectual – of the crime,” in a message on its Twitter account.
#ALERT #COMPLAINT
Once again the dirty war of the Colombian State is raging against the peasantry of the CNA, our comrades TEÓFILO ACUÑA and JORGE ALBERTO TAFUR have just been assassinated in the district of Puerto Oculto in the municipality of San Martín – Cesar pic.twitter.com/LuJh5iJvfl— National Agrarian Coordinator | CNA-Colombia (@CNA_Colombia) February 23, 2022
In addition, the Minga Association rejected both crimes and asked the Colombian Prosecutor’s Office to be present at the place where the two men were murdered.
“Teófilo Acuña, one of the most combative, hardened and persecuted leaders of Magdalena Medio, has just been assassinated. This is a tragedy, what this country continues to experience. Solidarity with his wife and children, with the Congress of the Peoples and their organizations,” said Diana Sánchez Lara, director of Minga.
For its part, the Congress of Peoples, a broad left-wing social and political movement of which Teófilo Acuña was a member, rejected his death and held the Colombian State “directly” responsible “for its omission in guaranteeing the integrity and life of of all the women leaders in the national territory”.
Every year, dozens of social leaders are assassinated in Colombia. In 2021, a total of 78 leaders were silenced, according to the UN, while the Colombian Ombudsman puts the figure at 145.
With EFE and local media