Indigenous leader assassinated in southwestern Colombia

An indigenous leader was assassinated this Monday in southwestern Colombia in an event that the community attributes to FARC dissidents who departed from the peace agreement, indigenous authorities reported.

The homicide occurred when José Albeiro Camayo and other members of the indigenous guard were trying to expel armed men who were mobilising through the municipality of Buenos Aires, in the department of Cauca.

According to a statement from the local indigenous authority, rebels from the former FARC threatened the natives, "intimidating them with firearms."

"Around 5:30 pm, members of the group started shooting at the assembled community," he detailed.

The murder is the second in ten days to occur in Buenos Aires, one of the areas hardest hit by the violence that followed the peace process with what was once the most powerful guerrilla group on the continent. On January 14, a 14-year-old indigenous guard was also killed there.

"We make an energetic call to the FARC dissidents to respect the life and personal integrity of the civilian population, we urge the authorities to investigate quickly and guarantee the security of all of Cauca," the Ombudsman's Office said on Twitter ( Obsduman).

According to Indepaz, an independent think tank, José Albeiro Camayo is the tenth community leader assassinated so far this year and the 1,296th since the signing of the historic peace agreement in 2016.

Without a unified command, the FARC dissidents are waging a struggle with other organisations for control of drug crops and the illegal exploitation of gold and other resources in remote areas of the country.

Colombia is experiencing the worst onslaught of armed groups in the last five years, with massacres, selective assassinations and displacements.