Another FARC member has been murdered while undergoing the reincorporation process that has seen thousands of former combatants put down their arms and transition to civil society since the signing of the peace agreement in November 2016. Jorge Enrique Sepúlveda’s body was found in Tierralta, department of Córdoba, last Thursday 6 June. He had been shot.
Previously a member of the FARC’s 58th Front, Jorge Enrique had been helping coordinate programmes managed by the Agency for Reincorporation and Normalisation, the body which oversees FARC members’ entry to civilian life.
Córdoba-based human rights organisation Cordoberxia said that local reincorporation efforts have been severely hampered by the presence of paramilitary groups in the region. A number of former combatants have been threatened while several social leaders have been murdered.
Insecurity was one of the key reasons attributed by the government to its decision in 2018 to close the ETCR transition camp El Gallo, one of multiple locations around the country where FARC members have been based in the reincorporation process. Jorge Enrique, who was based at El Gallo until its closure, is the second FARC member murdered in Córdoba, while more than 130 have been murdered overall in Colombia since the agreement was signed.