The peasant leader Emiro Nel Sánchez Medrano was found dead this Monday in the Colombian municipality of San Pelayo, in the Córdoba region, as reported by his relatives and the Land Restitution Unit.
His body, which was found on a rural road, had several bullet wounds, according to local authorities. Several organizations had denounced his kidnapping over the weekend after leaving a meeting called by the Land Restitution Unit in the municipality of Arboletes, in the Urabá region of Antioquia.
The Institute for Development and Peace Studies (Indepaz) has indicated that the victim was a “recognized leader” who represented thousands of families and participated in the creation of the Victims and Land Restitution Law. Currently, he presided over the Land Restitution Foundation (Fuvirtcan).
The Colombian High Commissioner for Peace has rejected the assassination “of the land claimant leader” and has condemned “this barbaric act that ignores International Humanitarian Law and threatens the cry for peace of the communities in the region.”
“We recently received news of his detention, the office of the High Commissioner for Peace issued an urgent call to the (self-styled Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces of Colombia) AGC to respect life and release Emiro,” reads a statement in which they regret that his “message was ignored”.
Despite this, this organization has once again urged the AGC -known as Clan del Golfo- to “respect the lives of social and community leaders, and to offer concrete gestures of peace that demonstrate coherence with their proclaimed claim of being part of the peace policy are part of the national government”.
“Each murder is a setback for the purpose of peace, and the attacks against land claimants in particular truncate the possibility that the rights of the victims and those who were dispossessed of their land will be restored,” he asserted.
Thus, they have asked the judicial authorities to act “promptly” and identify and sanction the persons responsible for this crime.