A second suspect in the murder of a Spanish tourist in Barranquilla was arraigned Thursday. The victim’s family says her Colombian husband ordered the hit.
Irene Cortes from Malaga, Spain, was murdered early Wednesday morning in an alleged robbery in a bar in Barranquilla, the capital of the northern department of Atlantico.
Juan Carlos Guerra Silva alias “Juanchi” or “Joaco” faces charges of aggravated homicide, aggravated robbery and weapons possession reported newspaper El Heraldo.
Guerra Silva’s accomplice, Brayan Dario Escorcia Blanco, has been in the custody of police since Wednesday. Video tape evidence from the bar reportedly shows Escorcia shot the 30-year-old Spaniard.
Cortes, a mother of five, was on vacation with her Colombian husband who was born in Barranquilla but moved to Spain in 2001.
The couple and some friends were reportedly at a bar early Wednesday morning when the two assailants entered and attempted to rob the group. Cortes was shot in the chest and died on her way to the hospital.
The family of the murdered tourist says that her husband, Farid Llinas Ariza, coerced his wife to go to Barranquilla against her will, and then hired a hit man to kill her.
The uncle of the deceased, Pedro Lucas, alleges that the night before the two left for Colombia, the husband took €2,000 ($2,760) from Cortes, “money that was used to buy a false passport, since he was on probation, and to hire a hit-man,” reported Caracol Radio.