A Canadian NGO has offered to work with the Colombian government to stop the murder of teachers in the northern department of Cordoba, El Heraldo reported on Wednesday.
CoDevelopment, a Canadian charity which focuses on Latin America, highlights the fact that of 63 teachers killed in the region since 1988, only two cases have been effectively investigated. Both were found to have been targeted by ex-paramilitary commander Salvatore Mancuso.
Already this year ten teachers have been murdered in the department.
Steven Stewart, a representative of the NGO, said that the situation in Cordoba was more serious than in any other place he had been.
“In other parts of the world the assassination of a teacher is something that causes shock in the community, but what we’re seeing in Cordoba is that these cases are frequent,” he said.
Stewart announced that he will use ideas from his home country to support initiatives such as the Association of Teachers of Cordoba, which declares all schools as peace zones, aiming to distance them from armed conflict.