Human rights defender and community leader murdered in Colombia

Villagers display names of victims of a massacre that killed eight people, including community leader Luis Eduardo Guerra.

Human rights defender, Francisco Puerta was assassinated reportedly by paramilitaries in front of the main transport terminal in Apartadó, Colombia on 14 May 2007.

Francisco Puerta was a community leader of the Peace Community, (Comunidad de Paz) of San José Apartadó, in the municipality of Apartadó, Antioquia, Colombia, and the former coordinator of the humanitarian zone in the district of Miramar.

The Peace Community was created by the civilian population in 1997 in an effort to persuade both the armed forces and guerrillas to respect their right as civilians not to be embroiled in Colombia's long running conflict.

Members of the Peace Community have been repeatedly targeted in the past. On May 9 2007 two women affiliated with the Peace Community were detained by three armed men, dressed in civilian clothes and carrying radios. They asked the women questions in relation to community leaders of the Peace Community, saying that they were not going to be able to save them and that the whole of the San José region was pure guerrilla. After a half-hour interrogation, they let the women go, after warning them that they would be killed if they mentioned anything to anyone.

In February of 2005, two community leaders of the Peace Community, Eduardo Guerra Guerra and Alfonso Bolívar Tuberquia Graciano and members of their families were assassinated by armed men reported to have been identified as members of the Colombian Armed Forces. In 2006, members of the Peace Community received death threats from paramilitary groups. Over 160 members of the Peace Community have been killed or disappeared since its establishment in 1997, reportedly at the hands of security forces, the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC) and las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC).

Front Line is concerned that Francisco Puerta and other members of the Peace Community were killed as a direct result of their legitimate and peaceful activities in the defence of human rights. Front Line urges the Colombian authorities to initiate an immediate, exhaustive and impartial investigation into Francisco Puerta’s killing.