[News] Colombia: First Ex-Combatant Killed in 2021, Yolanda Zabala Mazo

[Anti-Imperialist News]

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/colombia-first-ex-combatant-killed-in-2021-yolanda-zabala-mazo-20210101-0017.html
Colombia:
First Ex-Combatant Killed in 2021, Yolanda Zabala MazoJanuary 1, 2021
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The year begins in Colombia with the painful news of the killing of Peace
Accords signer Yolanda Zabala Mazo and her sister Reina Zabala Mazo, in
Briceño, Antioquia. Yolanda was carrying out her reincorporation process at
the Territorial Spaces for Training and Reincorporation (ETCR) of Plancha,
Anorí, Antioquia.

Yolanda and Reina, 22 and 17 years old respectively, were murdered in the
early morning Friday, January 1st, making Yolanda the 250th former
guerrilla killed since the signing of the Accords between the Colombian
state and the FARC.

Preliminary information suggests the two were leaving a New Year’s
celebration in the village of Travesías.

Yolanda formed part of the ranks of the demobilized and extinct FARC
guerrilla, and was known during the war as Liliana Estrada and was pardoned
in 2017 by Decree 1096.

Colombia’s El Espectador news outlet reports that more than a year
ago, Yolanda had to be taken to a medical center after she was injured by
shrapnel from an explosive device during an August 2019 armed confrontation
between two irregular armed groups in Cauca.

Three murders of former FARC combatants and signatories have been recorded
in les than a week. Rosa Amalia Mendoza Trujillo, 25 years old, was
murdered in the municipality of Montecristo (Bolivar), a victim of a
massacre in which four other people died. Manuel Alonso, known in the war
as Romel or Carmelo, was found dead in Miranda, Cauca. Both were in the
process of being reincorporated.

The FARC party, in a communiqué to the public on December 31, says it will
continue to work towards peace despite the long list of murders of former
combatants and their families.

Meanwhile, Indepaz reports that Gerardo Leon is the first leader and human
rights defender assassinated in 2021.
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