In an open letter published on October 21, members of the European Union (EU) and the French parliament backed their support for the 2016 peace accords and denounced the rise of political violence in Colombia.
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On Oct. 20, Colombia Humana’s campaign manager in the Cauca department, Gustavo Herrera, was assassinated. This came a day after another member of this party, Eduardo Alarcon Cordoba, was also murdered in the Southwestern department of Huila.
The Colombia Humana party was formed in 2018 as a progressive political alternative to the country's entrenched ruling elite. It's main political figure, Gustavo Petro, finished second in the 2018 presidential election, winning over 8 million votes.
The newly constituted political party has been particularly targeted by right-wing paramilitary groups, with at least 10 of its members assassinated in the last 2 years.
Unfortunately, this kind of political persecution is not new to the South American nation. Between 1984 and 2002, at least 4,153 members of the leftist Patriotic Union (UP) party were killed, forcibly disappeared, or kidnapped.
According to a UN report published in March, Colombia is the most dangerous country on earth to be a human rights defender, with some Colombian NGOs reporting over 1,000 activists selectively killed since 2016.
In the letter, the MPs express their profound concerns over the ongoing developments in Colombia and called on President Ivan Duque's administration to guarantee the safety of its citizens, in particular members of the opposition.