Colombian Vice President Angelino Garzon announced that the government is examining the possibility of getting the family of murdered displaced leader Ana Fabricia Cordoba out of the country for safety reasons.
“I find them very affected from an emotional and mental point of view, they have killed the father, the mother and the two brothers, they expressed the desire to leave the country,” said the vice president, after meeting with the remaining children of the assassinated social leader and with her cousin, the ex-Senator Piedad Cordoba, Caracol Radio reported Tuesday.
Garzon said that Colombia is looking for ties with another government that would allow the rest of the family to leave the country as quickly as possible, following the administration’s promise not to allow impunity for those responsible for the murder, and to provide any necessary security measures to ensure the safety of the remaining family members.
Meanwhile, the director of Citizen Security of the Colombian police, Orlando Paez Baron, said that authorities have rejected the possibility of police involvement in the murder, following investigation, while simultaneously saying that they have discovered those responsible and will soon release the information.
“We have made the inquiries and at this point we have no evidence or fact that indicates police authorities as responsible,” Spanish news agency EFE reported Paez Baron as saying.
On June 9, Garzon called for an investigation into possible police involvement in Cordoba’s murder, while the government offered an $85,000 reward for information helping to solve the case. A day earlier, the displaced leader’s children blamed the state for the assassination of their mother, claiming that she had reported death threats prior to her death but didn’t receive increased security, as well as denouncing the police as responsible for the 2010 murder of their brother.
The government has also announced plans to structure a new protection system for threatened persons, with the goal of preventing a new wave of violence from occurring against leaders involved in the land restitution and restoration process for those displaced by the conflict.