Colombia News | Colombia Reports
  • News
    • General
    • Analysis
    • War and peace
    • Elections
    • Economy
    • Culture
    • Sports
    • Science and Tech
  • Travel
    • General
    • Bogota
    • Medellin
    • Cali
    • Cartagena
    • Antioquia
    • Caribbean
    • Pacific
    • Coffee region
    • Amazon
    • Southwest Colombia
    • Northeast Colombia
    • Central Colombia
  • Data
    • Economy
    • Crime and security
    • War and peace
    • Development
    • Cities
    • Regions
    • Provinces
  • Profiles
    • Organized crime
    • Politics
    • Armed conflict
    • Economy
    • Sports
  • Lite
  • Opinion
  • About us
  • Support us
  • Contact Us
  • Intelligence
  • Advertising
  • Newsletter
Colombia News | Colombia Reports
  • News
    • General
    • Analysis
    • War and peace
    • Elections
    • Economy
    • Culture
    • Sports
    • Science and Tech
  • Travel
    • General
    • Bogota
    • Medellin
    • Cali
    • Cartagena
    • Antioquia
    • Caribbean
    • Pacific
    • Coffee region
    • Amazon
    • Southwest Colombia
    • Northeast Colombia
    • Central Colombia
  • Data
    • Economy
    • Crime and security
    • War and peace
    • Development
    • Cities
    • Regions
    • Provinces
  • Profiles
    • Organized crime
    • Politics
    • Armed conflict
    • Economy
    • Sports
  • Lite
  • Opinion
President Ivan Duque and Mayor Fabio Ortiz (Image: Twitter)
News

Colombia’s authorities caught in a web of lies after community leader’s assassination

by Adriaan Alsema June 24, 2019

Colombia’s defense minister and the mayor of the town in northern Colombia where armed men assassinated a community leader have been caught lying about the murder.

Defense Minister Guillermo Botero was forced to admit on Sunday that he lied to a local news outlet when he said guerrilla group ELN was responsible for the murder that triggered an unprecedented wave of indignation throughout Colombia.


The murder that made something snap in Colombia


The country’s Ombudsman’s Office on Sunday additionally rejected claims by the Tierralta Mayor’s office that the human rights body had undersigned a press statement denying community leader Maria Del Pilar Hurtado was a social leader or mentioned in a death threat sent to multiple members of the community early this month.

The Ombudsman additionally condemned death threats sent to local human rights defender Andres Chica who revealed that the killings took place amid a dispute between the family of Mayor Fabio Otero and Del Pilar Hurtado’s community.

Escorted by police, the human rights defender on Sunday fled his hometown where a special prosecution team from the capital Bogota has begun investigating the murder.


Duque orders investigation into social leader’s murder 6 hours after it had already started


Otero was forced to admit his father had been in a land dispute with the community, but accused the human rights defender of “politicizing” the murder.

Leading opposition leader Gustavo Petro, who has been denouncing ties between Colombia’s politicians and illegal armed groups for almost two decades, jumped in and asked Otero to “explain to Colombia what your father’s land dispute is about, Mr. Otero. Explain how many people and which land claimants have been assassinated.”

In response, Otero said that “my family has been constructing our patrimony for more than 40 years without intimidating anyone with arms or killing anyone. We have worked in the field and have generated employment decently,” the mayor responded.

But according to court documents released by one of Petro’s allies, Otero’s father has been ordered to return land he dispossessed from more than 30 farmers who were displaced by paramilitary organization AUC.

Cordobasocial leaders

Trending

  • Colombia registers 12th massacre so far this year

  • Journalist resigns after pulling editorial punch at Colombia’s richest man

  • Colombia’s elderly still waiting for COVID-19 vaccines

Weekly interviews and news updates

Related articles

  • HRW slams Colombia over failure to curb violence against human rights defenders

  • 2021: the year after massacres returned Colombia red

  • Massacres in Colombia more than triple as corruption cripples government

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Linkedin
  • RSS

@2008-2019 - Colombia Reports. All Rights Reserved.
Powered by Digitale Zaken and Parrolabs


Back To Top