A family of four has been assassinated in central Colombia, allegedly over a business dispute, local authorities said Thursday.
The massacre took place in a rural area Abejorral, a municipality in the south of the Antioquia department.
According to the government secretary, responsible for security in the department, the victims were a couple and their two children.
Government Secretary Santiago Londoño said on Twitter that police assume the massacre was carried out amid a dispute over business.
Un enfrentamiento por un negocio es la hipótesis q manejan las autoridades en el caso del asesinato colectivo de El Volcán. Q barbaridad
— SantiagoLondoñoUribe (@slondonouribe) October 4, 2012
Antioquia police commissioner Jose Gerardo Acevedo told RCN Radio that the massacre could also have been an act of revenge. The police official discarded the possibility the massacre had been carried out by an illegal armed group.
Londoño said to be “deeply touched” by the quadruple homicide and called the killing a “barbarity.”
Profundamente impactado con el asesinato de una familia en la Vereda El Volcan de Abejorral. Pareja y dos hijos menores.SIJIN inicia invest
— SantiagoLondoñoUribe (@slondonouribe) October 4, 2012