Massacre in El Cerrito, Valle del Cauca, left three dead

There slaughter 17 of 2023 in Colombia was presented in the municipality of El Cerrito, in the Valle del Cauca. A group of armed men arrived at the village of El Moral del Cañón who three people were murdered.

The victims have been identified as Cristian Martínez, 25, Jessica Hernández, 24, and Andrés Ulcué, 25. So far, the details of the facts are unknown.

Once the attack against these three people was presented, the Mediator came out to condemn the fact:

“We reject the massacre of three young people in the village of El Moral del Cañón del Chinche, rural area of ​​El Cerrito, Valle del Cauca. Solidarity with the families of the victims. This fact represents the materialization of the Early Warning 019-21 for Buga, El Cerrito and Palmira”.

In another trill, the Public Ministry entity assured that: “The risk scenario is due to the presence of the dissident ex-FARC-EP faction, calling itself ‘Compañía Adán Izquierdo’ and the actions of criminal groups and organized crime. We are confident in the speed of investigations.

In the above Early warning to which he alluded Mediator he was warned of the risks for the social and associative leaders of the municipality”, as well as the local public agents; the chiefs of the land claimants, the members of the Eucopal and Agrosasa associations who are simultaneously granted the properties of Sandrana and Samaria and the chiefs and representatives of the community aqueducts,” the national entity said.

According to Dane, in the municipality of The hill the approximate population is 57,133. 52% are women and 48% men. The ethnic population is 23.24%. The population is distributed 63.3% in urban areas and 36.7% in rural areas.

For Indepaz, an organization that monitors security in the country, the massacres occur in rural areas, “these armed groups are required to comply with the policy of total peace proposed by the national government and to put violence aside”, Juana Cabezas, a researcher at Indepaz, told Colombian National Radio.

The organization assured that the main perpetrators of these massacres are FARC dissidents. Don’t forget that you are massacres They have already surpassed the same recorded during the same month of February 2022 where six cases had been recorded.

It should be noted that so far this year there have been 17 massacres in 10 departments of the country and Bogotá, which claimed at least 53 victims, Antioquia with four cases, and Atlántico and Magdalena with two each, the territories most affected by this situation of violence.

The national government has indicated that the massacres in Colombia, they were reduced by 50% during the bilateral ceasefire. According to Interior Minister Alfonso Prada, in Chocó there has been a 68% reduction in acts of violence.

“With regard to homicides, we recorded a drop in Antioquia by 12%, in Norte de Santander by 2.6%, in Cauca by 13.4%, in Nariño by 9.4%, in Magdalena by 36, 6%, in Arauca 66.1%, in Córdoba 51.6%, in La Guajira 16.7% and in Chocó a very notable drop of 68%,” Prada said in a January 30 statement.

Another important fact concerns the reduction of massacres: according to official records, these events have been reduced by 50% compared to January 2022.

However, this figure does not agree with reports obtained by the Institute for Development and Peace Studies, Indepaz, which recorded 11 massacres in the first month of 2023, and although there was a reduction , it would not be 50% as Minister Prada announced.