Floro Samboní Gómez

Community leader fifty-six year old Floro Samboni Gómez was a farmer and president of the Junta de Acción Comunal (Community Action Board) in vereda Loma Larga Bajo, in the community of Llacuanas, Cauca.

On 24 April, 2020, Floro was at home when a group of armed men arrived at his house and called him out. When he appeared they opened fire several times killing him instantly. Floro was the fourth human rights defender to be murdered in Cauca in a week.

Of the 1,000 cases of human rights defenders and community leaders killed in Colombia between 2016 and 2020 74% remain in total impunity. Many of the killings take place in states where there is a convergence of interests between mining operations narcos and paramilitary groups.

Many community leaders ask how it is that states such as Cauca which have a very heavy military presence can be the epicenter of a wave of killings of human rights defenders. They accuse local military authorities of a failure to take meaningful action and in some cases of complicity in the crimes.


If you would like to provide a personal recollection, please email us at: HRDMemorial@frontlinedefenders.org

Region:Americas

Country:Colombia

Department/Province/State:Cauca

Sex1:Male

Age:56

Date of Killing:24/04/2020

Type of Work:Community leader

Organisation:Junta de Acción Comunal de la vereda Loma Larga Bajo.

Sector or Type of Rights the HRD Worked On:ESC Rights

Sector Detail:Citizens' rights, Land Rights, Peasant Communities

More information:Front Line Defenders

1This database records an individual's chosen gender identity. If they do not self-identify as male or female they can use the option of recording other/neither or use the term NBGI (non binary gender identity).