Attacks on human rights activists and so-called social leaders - a term that refers to heads of land, community, or environmental movements - by criminal gangs have been a major problem in Colombia for years.
According to the Institute of Development and Peace Studies (Indepaz), 127 murders of human rights defenders and social leaders have been reported in Colombia in the first nine months of this year. Previous years have not been better.
"Between 2016 and 2022, a total of 1,113 social leaders were killed. In 2016, 133 were killed, in 2017 the figure reached 126, in 2018, the record was 178, in 2019, it was 134, by 2020 it rose to 182, and in 2021, it reached 145 fatalities," stated the Colombian Ombudsman's Office.
A court convicted Arvey Sánchez Veru and Edwin Nicolás Jaramillo Betancur for aggravated homicide, aggravated conspiracy to commit a crime, and manufacturing, trafficking, carrying, or possessing firearms. Veru was also sentenced for the forced displacement of two women, one of them a minor.
Veru was a member of a group that operates in the Caquetá province, in southeastern Colombia. He took part in the 2019 murder of Gustavo Montoya Rodríguez, vice president of the Community Action Board, a body established to solve community problems in the La Expensa neighborhood, and Ronald Rodríguez Zuluaga, a member of the board's Conciliation Committee.
Jaramillo, known as Pateperro, was a member of a FARC offshoot operating in the rural areas of the Antioquia province when he shot the community leader and president of the Community Action Board of a village in 2021.
Veru was sentenced to 18 years and four months in prison, while Jaramillo was convicted to 17 years and five months.
