Two teachers were murdered in central and southwestern Colombia

The deceased have been identified as Douglas Cortés and Bayron Revelo.

Unknown killed two teachers in the Risaralda department, in the Eje Cafetero tourist region, and in Nariño, on the border with Ecuador, social organizations denounced this Monday 23-N.

The first of the crimes was perpetrated in the municipality of La Virginia, in Risaralda, where Professor Douglas Cortés was shot by unknown persons, specifically the Colombian Federation of Education Workers (Fecode).

“We denounce and repudiate the murder of fellow teacher Douglas Cortés Mosquera, which took place in La Virginia, in Risaralda. Our solidarity with his family and the educational community. Enough violence against teachers! The school is a land of peace”, he said. expressed Fecode in his social networks.

According to the Risaralda Police, the professor had not reported “any kind of threat” nor had he received attacks, so they are reviewing all the hypotheses to clarify this case.

Meanwhile, Bayron Revelo, a board member of the Nariño (Simana) Teachers Union and member of the leftist movement Colombia Humana, was shot dead in the municipality of Tumaco, which has the second port of the country on the Pacific Ocean.

According to Simana, “Bayron went with another manager to Tumaco on November 12 to perform a trade union task and on Friday the 13th they were arrested”.

“The other colleague was released on Sunday 15. Today we received with deep sorrow the discovery of the body of the director,” explained the agency.

For his part, Senator Gustavo Petro, head of Colombia Humana, said that “there is a murderous policy” because “it is not drug traffickers who kill” the militants of their movement, but rather it is “a political class that presses on drug traffickers to murder us “.

Rural violence in Colombia has intensified against social leaders, including 95 killed in the first half of the year, and against demobilized FARC, of ​​whom 243 have been murdered in different parts of the country since then. that the peace agreement was signed in 2016.

Government response

The Ministry of Education rejected the crimes of Cortés and Revelo, expressing “its firm commitment to continue the coordinated work carried out between the various state bodies to establish the forms of protection of the life, safety and integrity of educators and their families” .

“As a society we must keep in mind that educators are the public employees with the greatest presence in the area and key actors to guarantee the right to education,” added that portfolio.

Meanwhile, President Duque said on Monday that “there is no doubt that the assassination of social leaders is behind this crime today or that the rise in some regions of collective killings is also present today,” as his government refers. to the massacres.

“When we speak of national security in a comprehensive way, when we speak of high-level defense studies, we try to understand that defeating drug trafficking structures and cartels is an imperative duty that we cannot fail to include in any of our daily actions. “Duque added during the closing of the Advanced Course of Military Studies (CAEM) and the Complete Course of National Defense (Cidenal).