Despite advances for the peace process with the FARC rebels, the wave of assassinations [7] of social leaders across Colombia by presumed paramilitary hitmen remains unabated. On Dec. 12, a team of two hitmen mounted on a motorcycle gunned down Guillermo Veldaño, president Communal Action Junta in the vereda (hamlet) of Buenos Aires, Puerto Asís municipality, Putumayo department. Veldaño was a local leader of the leftist Marcha Patriótica [8] movement, which has been especially targeted for terror. (El Espectador [9], Dec. 12) That same day, campesino leader Eder Magones was slain when the moto-taxi he was riding in was ambushed by sicarios in Tiquisio, Bolívar department. (El Espectador [10], Dec. 12)
Violent conflict between rival gangs for control of the narco-traffic also continues to claim lives. On the night of Dec. 13, two were killed and 23 injured when an assailant on a motor-bike threw a grenade into a crowded nightclub in Pacific narco-export hub of Tumaco, Nariño department. Tumaco hs seen 132 homicides so far this year—actually 27 less than by this same period last year, but still a "worrying figure." (El Tiempo [11], Dec. 14)
