Prosecutor’s Office reveals lurid details of the death of a social leader in Nuquí: she was killed by three shots and naked

Last October, the social leader Juana Perea was found lifeless and with “a gunshot wound to the head”, in front of the Police station of the municipality of Nuquí, located on the beach, as confirmed by the mayor of Nuquí, Yefer Gamboa . From that moment, the Prosecutor’s Office worked hard to find the person responsible for the heinous crime and, in the investigation they carried out, they showed that those responsible for the murder belong to the so-called ‘Gulf clan’ and when carrying out the murder they acted with brutality, according to the investigating body.

The operation that the Attorney General’s Office carried out to find those responsible for the event was called ‘Operation Cetáceo’, which, according to prosecutor Francisco Barbosa, had the collaboration of the National Army and included the exhumation of the deceased leader, who was of Colombian-Spanish origin.

The newspaper El Tiempo had access to this information and showed that Barbosa requested the help of forensic doctors from Forensic Medicine and a single engine from the Navy. With this multidisciplinary team, they went to the Termales district, in the municipality of Nuquí, located 193 kilometers away to carry out the corresponding investigations.

Investigators from the Chocó Branch confirmed to the newspaper that six members of the aforementioned clan threatened, intimidated and executed the leader Perea. Subsequently, a team from the Human Rights Unit, accompanied by four forensic doctors from Legal Medicine, obtained testimonies from authorities and witnesses, which allowed them to reconstruct the crime.

Based on the information collected, the authorities ordered the capture of Aristides Pacheco, the man who drove ‘Río Villano’, the boat in which they transferred the social leader before killing her. The individual was accused of conspiracy to commit a crime and it is expected that in the next few hours he will be charged with femicide due to the “atrocity of the facts.” Forensics showed that the boat had blood spatter, which was later collected and evaluated in a laboratory. After the exhumation of the body, the coroner concluded that the victim was shot three times in the head.

The National Navy, in support of the intelligence of the Police and the Prosecutor’s Office, found the exact location where Néstor Leonel Lozano Muriel, the alleged murderer of the leader, shot her, taking her life.

The report revealed lurid details as well. One of the ones that generated the most shock in public opinion, was in which “Before being murdered, they took off her clothes in an attitude of humiliation, they made her kneel and she was shot 3 times. Once the woman died, on the 29th they found her on the beach in the municipality of Nuquí ”, says the report.

Who was Juana Perea

The victim She was a community leader in the sector and ran an ecotourism hotel in Termales, Nuquí. She was 50 years old and the granddaughter of Andrés Perea Gallaga, who in 1945 was the first delegate of the Basque government in Colombia, according to his cousin Ana María Restrepo Perea informed EFE.

“With great nostalgia today we learned about his murder. This leaves a very bad message for the area and for security here in Chocó ”, Luis Perea, president of the Institutional and Community Group of Artisanal Fishing (GICPA), assured Semana Rural at the time.

For his part, Mayor Gamboa stated that “The security situation of the municipality is very complex”, since they have a weak presence of the State and He even pointed out that until recently, the municipality had only 9 police officers for a community of more than 6,000 inhabitants.

“I talked to her continuously because of the role she played; He had not told me that he had threats. He told me about his concern about some pamphlets (which circulated) recently in various municipalities in the country but no particular threat“Gamboa told EFE.

It should be noted, that Chocó currently experiences a strong presence of illegal armed groups that have increased violence in the region, which is why President Iván Duque visited the capital of the department, on October 19.

The president evaluated strategies to mitigate the delicate situation, such as strengthening the presence of the public force with social investment and the arrival of 50 new police officers, to avoid the recruitment of young people by criminal gangs.

On the other hand, Luis Perea affirmed that an emissary from the Mayor’s Office, senior commanders of the Navy and the National Police advance a security council on the case with the mayor, Yefer Arley Gamboa, to establish the steps to follow in the investigation.

“One is dismayed that the security situation is very complex. Last week they also assassinated Mr. Fernando Vega, the wave of violence has been growing in recent days“Luis Perea added to the magazine.

Friends of Juana Perea, such as Katty Sutton, president of the Chocó Surf League, recognized that the leader “represented all the good that was in that region” and recalled her saying:

Juana was like everyone’s mother, she was a light for the community in the area. Wherever they needed her, she was there, whether it was to raise her voice against the port of Tribugá, to support the Chocó Surf League or whatever. He had his hand extended to help everyone in need.

According to Mayor Gamboa, Juana Perea was working on tourism issues with the Nuquí community, a municipality located about 50 minutes by plane from Quibdó and known for being one of the best places in the world for whale watching.

“Juana Perea had been leading a tourism issue; I had been working now, on the issue of covid, with protection issues and biosecurity protocols for tourist inns, and He was the leader of the hoteliers union of the municipality of Nuquí”Confirmed Gamboa.

In the last hours, a letter was known through Twitter that according to the Valle del Cauca journalist, Ronald Mayorga, the mayor of Nuquí sent in recent days to the municipality’s police:

According to Eugenio Mosquera, social leader of Chocó, At least six illegal armed groups are present in the territory, fighting for drug trafficking routes. “If we were not in a pandemic, the dead would be many more,” he declared on Caracol Radio, on October 19.

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