A leader of victims of forced displacement is assassinated Tuesday while traveling on a bus in Colombia’s second largest city Medellin.
According to several media, community leader Ana Fabricia Cordoba was shot dead on a bus in the north-eastern neighborhood of Santa Cruz where she had taken up the role of leader of displaced families fighting to be returned their lands.
Cordoba fled her home region of Uraba in 2001 after her husband was killed by paramilitary forces.
While in Medellin, the woman increasingly got involved in defending the rights of displaced and had filed several complaints before authorities about crimes committed against members of the displaced community.
Little less than a year ago, Cordoba’s son was also murdered. The displaced leader had said the police was responsible for the killing of her son.
Despite having received death threats related to her work, Cordoba was never granted protection. “They’re going to kill me and they haven’t done anything,” she was quoted as saying by newspaper El Tiempo.
According to Spanish press agency EFE, 16 displaced leaders have been killed since October when the government of Juan Manuel Santos announced to begin returning stolen land to its rightful owners.