Wilmer Antonio Miranda, a Campesino and social leader of Colombia’s Cauca region was shot to death Friday. He is the third social leader to be killed since 2019 started.
According to the political movement Marcha Patriotica (Patriotic March) at 6 p.m. four men in civilian clothing approached Miranda and shot him repeatedly, killing him on the spot.
Miranda was an active member of the Association of Campesino Workers, affiliated to the national agrarian union, the Association of Campesino Reserve Zones, and the Coordinator for Coca, Poppy, and Marihuana Growers.
Only January 5th and already 3 leaders killed in 2019 in Colombia – last night Wilmer Antonio Miranda a trade unionist, peasant leader, who was supporting the peace process and crop substitution program was murdered in Cauca. https://t.co/MTPP43iAI0
— Mariela JFC (@MarielaJFC) January 5, 2019
Through social media, Colombians are demanding government action. One man tweeted “@IvanDuque your government and legislative bench should stop worrying so much about other people’s problems and solve the death social leader and people who are human rights leaders in Colombia… How many more have to fall before your eyes sub-president?”
On Friday the countries that make up the Lima Group gathered in Lima to discuss actions against Venezuela and recently-elected President Nicolas Maduro.
Another social media user called out the public prosecutors office “with your ineffectiveness you have become accomplices. As citizens with rights, we must mobilize to demand the resignation of the corrupt prosecutor.”
Legislator Ivan Cepeda lamented Miranda’s death. “The extermination of social leaders in Cauca continues,” he tweeted.
The first social leader to be killed was community leader Gilberto Valencia, a social entrepreneur, peacebuilder and cultural manager in the city of Suarez. Valencia was sitting with friends and family when an anonymous shooter fired against him.
The second death was that of Jesus Adier Perafan who was gunned down Wednesday in his grocery store, in Caicedonia (Valle del Cauca).
No arrests have been made in relation to these cases.
