Juan de Jesús Monroy Ayala was a signatory of the Peace Agreement and community leader. He was a leader of a project to reincorporate former members of the FARC-EP into civil society in the province of Meta. He and a group of sixty former FARC members had been working to develop a brand of chocolate to provide an alternative source of income.
On 16 October, 2020, Juan de Jesus (who had used the name Albeiro Suárez while a FARC member) was shot dead when a group of armed men opened fire on him as he was travelling by motor bike through the community of El Planchón in the municipality of La Uribe. He was accompanied by a body guard who had been assigned by the Unidad Nacional de Protección (National protection Unit) and who was also a signatory of the Peace Agreement. Both men were killed.
Several months previously Juan de Jesus had lodged a complaint with the Justicia Especial para la Paz (Special Court for Peace) –JEP about the presence of paramilitary groups in Meta.
According to a report by Insight Crime “the reintegration process for demobilised FARC fighters in Colombia’s Eastern Plains is under threat by ex-FARC Mafia groups looking to recruit and reassert power in territories historically under rebel control……. One group, which calls itself the Segunda Marquetalia, is headed by former commander Luciano Marín Arango, alias “Iván Márquez,” who returned to armed conflict in August 2018. The other is the 40th Front, which is aligned with ex-FARC groups led by former commander Miguel Botache Santillana, alias “Gentil Duarte,” who never demobilised after the 2016 peace agreement with the government.
Ten demobilised FARC fighters have been killed in Meta this year (2020). Five of the slayings occurred in La Uribe, the municipality where “Albeiro Suárez”, and his bodyguard were gunned down, according to figures from the Institute of Studies for Development and Peace (Instituto de Estudios para el Desarrollo y la Paz – Indepaz).”
