We were deeply saddened to hear that on the morning of Tuesday, January 17, the bodies of Witness for Peace Colombian partner Emilsen Manyoma Mosquera (pictured above) and her companion Joe Javier Rodallega were found, with both knife and gun wounds, in Buenaventura. Emilsen was an Afro-Colombian community leader with CONPAZ (a network of community and victim organizations), living in the city of Buenaventura and working to support local peacebuilding initiatives in the region.

Our hearts were also broken recently when we heard of three assassinations of family members of WFP board member and displaced Afro-Colombian leader Marino Córdoba. Marino’s 21-year old son, Wilmar Córdoba Forero was brutally murdered with a machete by four paramilitaries in northwestern Colombia on October 19. Other extended family members of Marino, Moisés Mosquera and Juan de la Cruz Mosquera, were assassinated this last January 7 and January 9 in the municipality of Río Sucio.

Demand that the U.S. government pressure the Colombian government to investigate recent assassinations in Buenaventura and Chocó! Send officials from the State Department and congressional foreign affairs/relations subcommittees a letter through this action!