FARC member murdered in Antioquia is 22nd victim so far this year

FARC former guerrilla Rigoberto García Restrepo was murdered on Friday 17 April. The killing took place in Urrao in southeast Antioquia, a region that continues to see high levels of violence against former guerrillas and social activists despite the signing of the peace agreement in November 2016.

Rigoberto was based in a so-called New Reincorporation Area (NAR), which are communities established by FARC members outside of the formally-created ETCR reincorporation zones where thousands are receiving training and developing sustainable projects as they transition to civil society. In February, a delegation of the Justice for Colombia Peace Monitor visited a NAR in Mutatá, north Antioquia.

Rigoberto was aged 45 and had spent almost 30 years in the FARC. Since joining the reincorporation process, he had worked in agriculture and lived with his partner and two children.

Rigoberto’s death takes the figure of FARC members murdered to at least 195 since the peace agreement was signed. 22 of those killings have been committed so far in 2020.