Assassinated member of the Patriotic March in Cajibío, Cauca

The Patriotic March Party, denounced this Monday, October 5, through its Twitter account the murder of its member Jayder Quintana Salinas, a native of Cajibío, Cauca. Salinas was shot at 9 p.m., on Saturday, October 3, while he was mobilizing on a motorcycle in the Calle Real neighborhood.

According to Indepaz, with this crime there would be a total of 223 leaders who have lost their lives so far this year. Jayder Quintana was assassinated three days after the crime of the political activist and militant of Colombia Humana, Campo Elías Galindo, in Medellín

According to the Secretary of the Government of Cajibío, John Edison Chacón, Quintana was chatting with some friends in the central park of this municipality when he was intercepted by armed men who later shot him.

On the other hand, the official also affirmed that Quintana attended training sessions of the Patriotic March movement, but that his work as a leader was not yet recognized in that municipality.

“The fact is that I was attending some training sessions and I was already a branch of the movement. The one who dedicated himself to being a leader was his father, who leads several processes in the San José La Laguna neighborhood, ”said Chacón.

The official indicated that investigations were started to try to establish the motives for the crime and find those responsible.

Almost simultaneously with this crime, in Mercaderes (Cauca) a wedding couple was murdered, one of the victims, in addition to being a minor, was the daughter of a leader from Popayán. In Corinto, a child under 15 was shot 18 times; an indigenous community member who had been declared a military target was assassinated in Toribío; and at the Tambo, armed men took the life of a stadero owner. As it is, violence seems to be raging in Cauca.

Killings of leaders increase

Thus, the murders of social leaders do not seem to stop: In 2016 there were 61 murders of leaders; In 2017 the figure rose to 84, for 2018 the highest peak was registered when 115 homicides were registered, in 2019 it reached 108 and so far in 2020 there have been 47 murders of leaders, according to a document prepared by the Ministry of the Interior based on figures from the UN Office for Human Rights.

According to the report, between 2016 and 2017 murders grew 38 percent; Between 2017 and 2018 the increase was 37 percent, but in what corresponds to 2018 and 2019, which concerns the current Government, there was a decrease of 6 percent, going from 115 homicides to 108.

Faced with these figures, from Redepaz they assure that although in 2019 there was a very slight decrease, “this cannot be a figure that satisfies society, the Government is getting used to high figures of murders of leaders, as if it were something natural ”.

The departments most affected by this problem are Arauca, Norte de Santander, Córdoba, Cesar, Bolívar, Chocó, Antioquia, Valle, Cauca, Nariño, Putumayo, Caquetá, Meta, Guaviare, as they are the ones with the highest probability of rights of social leaders and human rights defenders.