Four of the five people who allegedly perpetrated the massacre of the four members of a family in the Colombian municipality of Landázuri, in the department of Santander (northeast), were lynched this Sunday by the community that hunted them down after the crime.
The governor of Santander, Mauricio Aguilar, said that one person came out of the massacre unharmed and went to seek help from the community that did “justice on their own, taking the lives of four of the murderers.”
“There is another fifth person that we are looking for, investigating, and who would be part of this macabre crime,” said the official, who added that the massacre was apparently perpetrated by Venezuelan citizens with white weapons.
The victims of the crime, committed in the village of Buenos Aires, are Professor Álvaro Díaz and his wife Loiden Acuña, as well as their children aged 13 and 20.
The Institute of Studies for Development and Peace (Indepaz) pointed out that this is the 77th massacre committed in Colombia so far this year, of which 13 have occurred since August 7 when Gustavo Petro assumed the Presidency.
CASE DETAILS
Santander Interior Secretary John Ruiz told a news conference that a woman who worked at the house survived the attack and reported what happened to authorities.
“The employee who was there was injured, managed to escape and alerted the community, which tried to persecute those allegedly responsible for this act,” he added.
He also said that apparently the perpetrators of the crime were five people, four men and one woman.
REQUEST FOR MEASURES
The regional prosecutor of Santander, Magda Buendía, asked the mayor of Landázuri, Marlon Ballén, “to take the necessary measures” in view of the delicate public order situation in the municipality.
Those measures, added the official, “are decreeing a curfew and asking the National Army and the National Police for accompaniment in the municipality.”
“Likewise, the Government of Santander was required to convene a security council on site. In the same way, the Police and the Army were asked to present a report on the events that occurred in the municipality,” Buendía explained.
In this sense, Governor Aguilar assured that two security councils were held in which it was decided that a commission would travel on Monday to attend to the situation.
“The curfew decision was also made starting at 6:00 in the afternoon to avoid disturbances of public order by the community in the face of a possible riot,” said the official.
Violence has intensified in recent weeks in the country despite the ambitious initiative of Colombian President Gustavo Petro to achieve “total peace.”
This includes negotiations with the illegal armed groups that persist, either through a peace negotiation in cases such as that of the National Liberation Army (ELN) -a political guerrilla- or a submission to justice for those involved in common crimes, such as of the drug gangs or the dissidents of the former FARC.