Local authorities have offered a bounty of 20 million COP (4,187 GBP) to capture the killers of this 70-year-old farmer who had campaigned against illegal mining.
Police say the local community leader and farmer Jorge Enrique Oramas, 70, was murdered in the village of Villacarmelo in the municipality of Cali in the Valle del Cauca department in southwest Colombia.
They say the organic farmer, who led social movements to fight against illegal mining in the region, was shot dead at the farm where he had lived for the last 8 years.
Local councillor Terry Hurtado said: “Yesterday they killed the organic farmer and healthy food producer Enrique Oramas at his home, Biocanto, in Villa Carmelo. I have called the prosecutors, the local police and the public security office to urge a thorough investigation.”
The mayor of Cali, Jorge Ivan Ospina, condemned the murder and offered a bounty of 20 million COP to any person who can help to find the killers.
Ospina said: “The city can not allow someone who fought to protect Los Farallones de Cali and who was a forest warden to be murdered.”
He added: “We feel an enormous pain that a man who protected life and biodiversity is gone.”
According to the National Institute for Development and Peace (INDEPAZ), Oramas is the 25th community leader murdered since the lockdown for the COVID pandemic started in Colombia.
The United Nations (ONU) office for human rights has reportedly warned about an increase in threats to indigenous community leaders and farmers living in the Cauca department in Colombia.
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Story By: Jonathan Macias, Sub-Editor: Michael Leidig, Agency: Newsflash
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