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.