BOGOTA – A community leader who pushed for the restoration of lands stolen from peasants was slain in the northern province of Sucre after meeting with a legislator, the office of Colombia’s national ombud said.Carlos Eduardo Olmos Cardenas was shot seven times at the eatery he ran in the central square of Los Palmitos.
Leftist lawmaker Ivan Cepeda said that he had met with Olmos Cardenas and other activists a few hours before the murder to discuss the restitution of lands.
“It’s inconceivable that after a meeting where several complaints were made one of the main community leaders turns up murdered,” Cepeda, said, calling for a thorough investigation.
The national ombud’s office seconded the call for a full investigation and, in addition, asked that measures be taken “to safeguard the life and (physical) integrity” of Luis Felipe Vega, a colleague of Olmos Cardenas.
Human Right Watch a month ago in a report denounced the fact that dispossession, threats and displacement “are unpunished” in Colombia.
In that report, HRW said that the activities of paramilitary groups that still operate in Colombia, especially Los Urabeños, as well as a “lack of justice,” prevent the Victims and Restitution of Lands Law, promulgated in 2011 by President Juan Manuel Santos, from being successfully implemented.
Over the last three years, more than 50 people who have demanded the restoration of lands have been murdered.
Hundreds of thousands of Colombian peasants have been driven from their land over the course of a decades-long conflict among leftist guerrillas, government forces and right-wing militias.
While some of the displaced left to escape fighting, others were systematically forced out by gunmen working for powerful economic interests.
