Colombia 'on alert' after new activist killing
Source: Agence France-Presse
Colombia 'on alert' after new activist killing
By AFP 6 hours ago.
Colombia is on alert after the killing of five human rights activists in recent days, the government said Monday, warning of potential attempts to destabilize a delicate peace process with the FARC rebels.
Land-rights activist Nestor Ivan Martinez was shot dead Sunday in the northern department of Cesar, the fifth rural community leader killed as the government seeks to end a 52-year-old conflict with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
"We are on alert because in this home stretch of the peace process, there are always groups that want to create instability, create chaos with these kinds of threats and murders," Interior Minister Juan Fernando Cristo said.
Martinez was shot twice in the head while visiting his brother's farm, said an umbrella group of local community organizations in which he was involved. "They're calling it a robbery, but all his belongings were still there," spokesman Gabriel Henao said.
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