Source Telesur

Indigenous leader, Alexánder Cunda, was shot dead by unknown individuals on Friday, 08 March 2019, in a rural area of ​​the village of El Progreso, in the northern department of Cauca, Colombia.

According to the testimony of local people, a group of armed men approached him and shot him without a word, hitting him at least three times in the head. “Some people arrived and attacked Alexánder who was a well known and respected leader in the community of Miranda”, according to his relatives.

With the murder of Alexánder Cunda, Cauca department has seen more than a score of indigenous leaders killed so far this year (2019).

Since the signing of the Peace Accords in 2016, the massacre of leaders and social leaders, peasants and indigenous nationwide, has reached 472 people murdered. Social and human rights organizations have demanded that the government of Iván Duque take effective measures to protect the lives of leaders who are being threatened on a daily basis by the violence of paramilitary groups.