Corregimiento El Palo, Centro Poblado.

On Sunday 03 February 2019, at around 10:19 pm, 23 year old Eric Esnoraldo Viera Paz walked out of his mother’s house. Minutes later as he was passing in front of a local bar he was followed by a man wearing a grey hooded coat who opened fire.

Eric Esnoraldo was shot twice, hit in the stomach and the hand. He was transferred to the local hospital of Caloto but was declared dead on arrival.

Eric Esnoraldo was a member of the Board of Community Action of Vereda el Palo, a member of the Association of Workers Pro-Constitution Reserve Zones Campesina de Caloto – ASTRAZONACAL, a subsidiary of the FENSUAGRO – CUT National Unitary Agricultural Federation, of the ANZORC National Association of Peasant Reserve Areas, of the Popular Unity Process of the Colombian Southwest – PUPSOC, and of the Social Coordination and Political Patriotic March of Cauca .

He had also worked in humanitarian de-mining with The Halo Trust for the south of the Department of Valle del Cauca between the municipalities of Pradera and Florida until January 28, 2019.

It is worth noting that near the scene of the events there are two military control points of the Colombian Army: one located in the populated area of ​​the Alto de la Pal, approximately 500 meters from the hamlet of El Palo Township and another in the Balastrera approximately one and a half kilometers above the road that connects the Corregimiento el Palo with the Municipality of Toribio.