Colombian Vice President Angelino Garzon has called for an investigation into possible police involvement in the murder of displaced leader Ana Fabricia Cordoba, while Colombia is offering an $85,000 reward for information helping to solve the murder.
Vice President Garzon called for a thorough investigation that would uncover the involvement of any policemen involved in the murder of the displaced leader.
Police Chief General Oscar Naranjo, while announcing the $85,000 reward, said that before her death Ana Fabricia Cordoba had denounced the name of a supposed lieutenant. Although Naranjo said that the name did not match the databases, he admitted that the authorities are not ruling out police involvement.
“In the event of police involvement, our hand will not shake in bringing them to justice. We should have prevented this murder,” he said, reported Caracol Radio.
The Colombian government has insisted, however, that Cordoba renounced a protection scheme by the government last year, something that Caracol Radio claims to authenticate through two letters between Cordoba and the government.
The government has nevertheless condemned the murder and is preparing new security plans to provide protection to the some 11,000 people at risk in the country, primarily through private security companies who would be contracted to the state and administered by the Ministry of Defense.
Ana Fabricia Cordoba, former Senator Piedad Cordoba’s cousin, was murdered on Tuesday while travelling on a bus in Medellin’s Santa Cruz neighborhood. Her daughter yesterday blamed the state for the murder, either explicitly or at least implicitly, given that the threats on her mother’s life had been made known months earlier. The whole family had received threats while Ana Fabricia Cordoba’s son was murdered last year.