Sources: Justice for Colombia,

About

Diofanor Montoya, was a 64-year-old peasant who led programs that benefited the elderly in his community.

Dionafor worked primarily with people of advanced age living in precarious social conditions. Residents said that his work made him an important and respected member of the community.

The Killing

Community organiser Montoya was murdered at his home in Maceo, department of Antioquia, on Saturday 27 April.

He was tending to crops in his garden when armed men entered the property and shot him dead.

Óscar Yesid Zapata, spokesperson for the Antioquia Node of Coeuropa reports that according to the information collected, armed men arrived at Diofanor’s residence and fired on the leader several times, fleeing the area.

Statements by the Secretary of the Government of Maceo, Julian David Urrego, pointed out that the people who committed the homicide « were after another person », a hypothesis that according to Oscar Yesid is « a way to justify not only the homicide against the leader, but also against any person’.

Despite this, until then it was not known if Diofanor had been threatened before.

Source: Zona Cero

 The Investigation & Trial

A judge sent three people to jail who are allegedly part of the criminal gang ‘Clan del Golfo’ and who are accused of murdering a social leader in the Colombian department of Antioquia (northwest), the Prosecutor’s Office reported.

In a statement a judge from the Sixth Municipal Criminal Court of Medellín legalized the capture of the three men, allegedly involved in the murder of social leader Diofanor Montoya Urrego.

The three people arrested were identified as Luis Eduardo Zapata, alias ‘Luis 15’ or ‘Rubén’; Leonardo Enrique Cogollo, alias ‘Barajas’, and Juan Gabriel Gil, alias ‘El Poli’, who are « alleged members of the ‘Clan del Golfo' » .

According to the authorities, Montoya, 75, was murdered on April 26 in the municipality of Maceo, in the department of Antioquia, when he was doing work on his farm and these men shot him.

For this murder, the authorities charged them with the crimes of:

– « aggravated homicide in heterogeneous competition with the manufacture, trafficking and carrying of weapons, restricted use ammunition, for the exclusive use of the armed forces or aggravated explosives, and aggravated conspiracy to commit a crime . « 

According to the investigations, alias ‘El Poli’ was be the leader of the ‘Clan del Golfo’ in that region of the country and would be in charge of the ‘Jorge Iván Arboleda Garcés’ front.

The ‘Clan del Golfo’ is the main criminal gang heir to the demobilized United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) and is mainly dedicated to drug trafficking, illegal mining and extortion.