A FARC leader who accepted the peace agreement with the dissolved guerrilla in 2016 was assassinated by a sniper in southern Colombia, the party that emerged following disarmament denounced on Tuesday.
With the assassination of Ronald Rojas “the terrifying figure of 333 peace signatories assassinated is reached, most of them occurred in the Duque government,” he wrote in TwitterRodrigo Londoño, head of the Comunes party.
Known as Ramiro Durán in his time as leader of the FARC’s Southern Bloc, Rojas was 41 years old and was attacked by a sniper who shot him twice in the chest on Monday in a rural area of the city of Neiva, detailed the political force in a statement.
Before handing over his weapons in 2017, he was politically responsible for one of the largest structures of what was the most powerful guerrilla in the Americas.
After signing the peace, he joined the monitoring commission for the signed agreements, which also includes Colombian officials.
From that body he denounced “targeted attacks” once morest ex-guerrilla combatants and their former collaborators in the south of the country.
In April 2021, Rojas resigned from the Comunes party due to differences with the leadership.
He was “a leader committed to the territory, to dialogue and to the reincorporation process,” the head of the UN mission in Colombia, Carlos Ruiz Massieu, recalled on Twitter, stressing “the need to reinforce the security of ex-combatants and leaders of peace”.
peace agreement
Although the peace agreement reduced political violence, the country still deals with armed groups that profit from drug trafficking and other illegal income in the former areas of influence of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.
Hundreds of former guerrillas who were part of the pact have been killed by dissidents who took up arms, drug trafficking groups and even members of the public force, according to the Prosecutor’s Office.
With the assassination of Ronald Rojas (Ramiro Durán) the terrifying figure of 333 peace signatories assassinated is reached, most of them occurred in the Duque government.
Guarantees are urgently needed for the life and physical integrity of those of us who lay down our arms to embrace the dream of peace. pic.twitter.com/13J6JyVQh9
– Rodrigo Londoño (@TimoComunes) July 5, 2022
With pain and indignation we report the murder of the fellow signer of the Peace Agreement, Ronald Rojas, known in the FARC-EP as Ramiro Durán. We demand that the Colombian State, headed by Iván Duque, clarify these acts, especially who is giving these orders. pic.twitter.com/EhmJMvil5X
— COMMONS ???? (@ComunesCoL) July 5, 2022
