The Colombian Federation of Education Workers (Fecode) highlighted that 63% of the murders of union members in the world occur in Colombia, which reflects the serious situation faced by educators in the country.
During the course of the year, at least five cases of murdered teachers have been recorded in areas of the Colombian Caribbean, where the presence of armed groups and criminal gangs is palpable. One of the most recent cases was that of Roberto Mejía, a teacher recognized for his commitment to the community, who was brutally murdered in his residence in the town of Juan y Medio, south of Riohacha.
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Regarding the murder, it was learned that there were four subjects who with weapons and hidden faces entered the property violently and went to look for the teacher in his room, from where they took him out and shot him to death in the patio of the house.
Mejía became the latest victim of a wave of violence directed towards educational and union leaders in the country. Other teachers, such as Guillermo Otero, Eliécer Guevara, Efrén de Jesús Zapata Elorza and Luis Alfredo Leones, also lost their lives in similar attacks. All of these professionals shared the characteristic of belonging to unions, which has generated an alert among the authorities and has promoted investigations to capture those responsible for these crimes.
These attacks have intensified amid tensions between illegal armed groups that dispute territorial control in the region. Mejía’s death serves as a tragic reminder of the risks faced by education professionals in areas dominated by the presence of these groups.
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The situation of teachers in Colombia, especially those who work in rural areas affected by conflict, continues to generate concern in various sectors, including human rights organizations that have repeatedly denounced violence directed towards social leaders and educators.