Jhon Jairo Guzmán was a farmer and vice president of the Junta de Acción Comunal (Community Action Board) in the village of Tesorito in Tarazá, Antioquia.
On 17 October, 2020, Jhon Jairo was murdered when armed men burst into his home in the community of Barro Blanco in Tarazá and attacked him with guns and knives. He died immediately.
The murder of Jhon Jairo brought to forty-five the number of community leaders killed in Antioquia alone since the signing of the Peace Agreement in 2006, second only to Cauca where sixty-six community leaders were killed in the same period.
While it has not been possible to identify the perpetrators, prior to the killing there had been a significant increase in criminal activity in Tarazá by members of armed criminal groups ‘Clan del golfo’ y ‘Los Caparrapos’.
