“They killed the Kid!” was heard saying and everyone thought it was Carlos Alberto Valderrama Palacios, the popular and beloved ‘Kid’ from the glorious times of the Colombian National Team; However, it was not regarding him, but regarding Miguel Ángel Arrieta Mendoza, a social leader who, due to his resemblance to the Colombian and world soccer star, was called ‘El Pibe de Soledad’.
On the morning of Friday, March 17, a hitman entered Miguel Ángel’s workplace, a bicycle repair shop in the Villa Adela de Soledad neighborhood, and shot him in the head, seriously wounding him. Neighbors of the sector took him to a municipal care center, but there they might only confirm his death. Read here: Serial killer? Third woman found dead inside garbage bag
Those who knew Miguel Ángel assure that “he was a natural social leader”. He was an athlete, he liked to compete in athletic races in the Atlantic and the Caribbean, and he also helped and motivated young people to practice any sport, to study and prepare so that they would not fall into “bad things.”
The reason for his death is a mystery that the authorities are trying to reveal. His friends and family say that he had no enemies, “at least they knew him.”
‘El Pibe de Soledad’ was launched to the Council of his municipality for the Historical Pact.//
“We don’t know what might have happened, because, apart from his community and political work, he also worked as a bicycle mechanic and sold motorcycle parts,” said Iván Vargas, who is the spokesman for the Human Colombia party in Soledad, a political group in which Arrieta Mendoza was a militant and for which he ran for the Council of that municipality and to which he aspired once more.
One of the hypotheses that arises is that his murder might have been the product of extortion to which he did not agree; the other is that his death might be related to his performance as a social leader in the community where he lived. Also read: Crime in Soledad does not drop: 22 murders in 24 days in January
Miguel Ángel Arrieta Mendoza was 51 years old and leaves four children.
The mayor of Soledad, Rodolfo Ucrós, following regretting the fact, announced that up to 20 million pesos are being offered as a reward to whoever provides truthful information that allows finding the person or persons responsible for the crime that has shocked that municipality in the metropolitan area of Barranquilla.
The Colombia Humana party rejected the death of “El Pibe de Soledad” and also called on the authorities to clarify this homicide, “because we know that today the lives of many leaders of social processes are at risk of our party in the Caribbean”.
Miguel Ángel Arrieta Mendoza, ‘El Pibe de Soledad’, liked to participate in athletic races.//
