The commander of a FARC column in the south of Colombia is held responsible for the killings of twelve people in the past three weeks. Authorities say the murders are to avenge the death of the commander’s boyfriend.
The killings all occured in the south of the central-west Tolima department that has seen intense fighting for years and is considered a FARC stronghold because of its mountainous south.
In the towns of Planadas and Rioblanco twelve people were assassinated. All murders allegedly were ordered by ‘Marleny’, whose boyfriend ‘Yoiner’ was killed by security forces.
According to newspaper El Espectador, a local authorities say the guerrilla commander wil not rest until she found the informants who disclosed her boyfriend’s location to the security forces and that “the order is that everything that smells of the State must disappear off the map.”
The recent killings and fear for more deaths have resulted in the displacement of the inhabitants of the region, the newspaper reports.