Two students have been killed in the crossfire between gangs in Medellin
Two students, aged 16 and 17 were killed while doing their homework, while two 16-year-olds and one 14-year-old — who was shot twice in the back — were injured after gang members from the adjacent neighborhood, La Divisa, entered the neighborhood of Juan XXIII and began shooting indiscriminately.
Authorities are currently searching for the gunmen from La Divisa.
Vasquez Prada said that initial reports indicated that the victims were students and had nothing to do with the violent gang wars plaguing the comuna to the west of the city.
Community members poured onto the streets in March to protest the violence against youth in Medellin after a 17-year-old rapper, “Yhiel,” was gunned down crossing an invisible border in the Comuna 13 which marked the territory of the gunman who took his life.
Violence between neighborhood gangs in the Comuna 13 and other comunas around the city is said to be the result of a war between rival “Oficina de Envigado“ leaders, “Valenciano” and “Sebastian,” who have been fighting for control of micro-trafficking in Medellin since former boss “Don Berna” was extradited to the US in 2008.
It was reported May 12, that Valenciano’s “right hand man” was caught in Aruba.