Source Paz en el Terreno

Felicinda Santamaria was the president of the Community Action Board of the Virgen del Carmen neighborhood, commune 2 of Quibdó. Hours after the leader received a call to go to a meeting, she was killed.

On July 3, 2018, while thousands of families in Colombia were gathered watching the World Cup match of the Colombia National Team against England, Felicinda Santamaría was murdered in front of her relatives, at the door of her house.

The leader “asked for constant training for her community.” According to Miguel Lemus Maturana, president of the 29 Community Action Boards in the Quibdó Commune 2, Since taking on the role of the president of the JAC in her neighborhood, in April 2016, Felicinda included women, youth and mothers who are heads of households in projects such as community gardens and fish and chicken farms.

« What she cared about most was that young people who were on the wrong track had the opportunity to be accepted by society again, » Lenin Gonzalez, vice president of the Chocó Community Action Federation told Colombia 2020. In addition, she said that the leader constantly denounced the poor state of the roads, as well as the neighborhood school.

According to residents Felicinda received a call on July 3, 2018, where they asked her to go to her home. Once she arrived, two men shot her three times causing her immediate death. She had not previously reported any threats.

According to Gladys Mena, president of the JAC in Quibdó, « We are knocking on doors because we are very concerned about the leaders in this area, because there have already been already many cases of threats that we have received and we do not feel the support of the national, departmental or municipal governments. »

In October 2018, the Prosecutor’s Office ordered the capture of Franklin Mena Moreno, identified as being one of the organisers and material perpetrators of the murder of leader Felicinda Santamaría. Moreno is known in the world of hired killers as ‘Franklin’ or ‘Bucon’, and was the neighborhood leader of the criminal gang known as ‘Los Chucky’, under the command of the already captured ‘Chema’ or ‘Chucky’.