Authorities in the north of Colombia have arrested an alleged member of the neo-paramilitary group “Los Urabeños” for Tuesday’s assassination of an indigenous leader, local media reported Wednesday.
A man identified by the alias “Jonathan” was arrested on charges of being one of two gunmen who killed Carmen Fuentes, a local leader of the Embera Katio tribe, early Tuesday morning.
Jonathan is accused of being a member of Los Urabeños, a criminal group composed almost entirely of former paramilitaries and is held responsible for many murders in northern Colombia as well as drug trafficking.
Twenty indigenous Colombian indians have been reported killed in the past two months and–including Fuentes–two leaders of the Embera Katio tribe have been killed this week. Authorities have stated that they do not know the motivation behind either murder.
Fuentes was killed in Montelibano, Cordoba in Colombia’s northern Caribbean region. Fernando Tequia, an Embera Katio leader who was killed Sunday, was gunned down in western Antioquia in the center of the country under similar circumstances.