Source: Llanera.com, WOLA, Cuarto de Hora
About
Alfonso Correa Sandoval was serving as president of the Community Action Board in the La Cabuya village, in the municipality of Tame and was a member of the Manantiales Peasant and Environmental Association- ASOCAM.
Alfonso had been the victim of forced displacement due to the massacre in La Cabuya village in which took place between the 18th November to the 20th, 1998, by members of paramilitary groups.
Correa had also founded the Farmer’s Environment Association (ASOCAM), a rural farmer’s organization dedicated to land restitution.
He is survived by his two children.
Source: Llanera.com, WOLA, Cuarto de Hora
The Killing & Investigation
Alfonso Correa Sandoval was shot dead on the afternoon of Wednesday, 13th March in the Casirva sector, a border area between the departments of Arauca and Casanare. Sandoval was walking to his farm when three men who had been waiting in the bushes shot him 20 times.
Correa had recently returned to the land he was forced to flee in 1998 following the Cabuya Massacre perpetrated by the police and paramilitary groups.
Correa was in the process of fighting for his land to be officially re-titled.
Saúl Bohórquez, the Secretary of Government of the municipality of Tame, indicated that the death of this community leader occurred in the context of the armed conflict that the country is experiencing and it is necessary to investigate to find out the whereabouts of those responsible and find out the reasons for his death.
For his part, Juan Carlos Villate, representative of the Tame municipality, said that the community leader was working hand in hand with the Public Prosecutor’s Office, in providing training in human rights and international humanitarian law.
Weimar Cetina, president of the Departmental Federation of Boards, affirmed that « it is worrying that community and social leaders are becoming a target of the actors in the conflict and that the government does not provide us with any guarantee for the exercising of our functions.’
