About

Sources: Telesurtv.net

Dagoberto Álvarez Claro was treasurer of the Community Action Board of the Los Cacaos district and social leader of the Miraflores village, in the municipality of Playa de Belén in Norte de Santander.

Killing

On Saturday June 1st 2019, the lifeless body of social leader Dagoberto Álvarez Claro was found with several bullet wounds.  He was assassinated in the Miraflores neighbourhood of the municipality of La Playa de Belén in the Catatumbo area.

His relatives claimed that on the previous Saturday 1st June, he was taken from his home by heavily armed men.

Previous Threats

Álvarez Claro, 36 years old, worked as treasurer of his Miraflores district. Due to constant threats against his life, he had filed complaints with the National Police and the Prosecutor’s Office to guarantee his safety, but these efforts were in vain.

“The threats were reported by the Prosecutor’s Office and a security strategy was pending by the National Protection Unit,” said Colonel Quilian Novoa, operational commander of the Norte de Santander National Police.

Source: El Espectador

According to a report published by National Institute of ‘Medicina Legal’ (Legal Medicine) and Forensic Sciences (Colombia) on May 15, 317 social leaders have been assassinated in the country in 2018 so far. The departments in which more murders have been registered are Cauca with 67 cases, followed by Antioquia with 44 and Nariño and Norte de Santander with 25 each.

These last two departments show the highest level of violence in Colombia, due to the strong presence of dissenting groups of the Farc, the National Liberation Army (Eln) and Popular Liberation Army (Epl), considered by the government as criminal gangs.

According to this report, the municipality of Tumaco (Nariño) was the one where most murders of social leaders were committed, with 15, while the second most violent was Corinto, in Cauca, with eleven leaders killed.