COLOMBIA: INDIGENOUS LEADERS MURDERED On Jan. 18, unidentified assailants shot to death Henry Perea Torres, the mayor of Jurado municipality, in the northwestern Colombian department of Choco, after dragging him out of his office in broad daylight. Perea had taken office on Jan. 1 after winning municipal elections last October on the ticket of the Social Indigenous Alliance (ASI). Spokespeople for ASI blamed the murder on the 57th Front of the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and charged that Perea had expressed fear for his life following the murder of his personal friend, Embera indigenous leader Armando Achito Lubiaza. Charging that the two murders were carried out by hired killers contracted by opposing political groups, ASI called on the international and national community to investigate the incidents. [El Colombiano (Medellin) 1/19/01; Reuters 1/18/01] Achito was gunned down on Dec. 25 at his home in Jurado by rightwing paramilitaries, according to the Council of Indigenous Authorities of the Wounaan OREWA Regional Embera Organization. The paramilitaries then went to a shelter occupied by displaced indigenous people, where they stole a communications radio. According to the group, Achito was a council member of Jurado municipality; he had just been reelected to the post by the ASI, with full support of the Jurado community. Several church groups responded to Achito's murder by forming an observer delegation for the area which began work on Dec. 26; Perea formed part of this delegation. [Wounaan OREWA Communique 12/26/00; Communique from the Comision Diocesana Vida, Justicia y Paz/Equipo Misionero Justicia y Paz 12/26/00]
