Five people were shot by contract killers in a turbulent department in the southwest of Colombiathe police reported this Monday.
“The national police regret the events in which five people lost their lives,” Colonel Giovanni Cristancho told W Radio on Sunday evening in the rural area of Toro, a municipality in the Valle del Cauca.
Four other people were injured in the attack, which occurred at a bar around 7:30 p.m. local time (00:30 GMT).
Four attackers “entered the business premises and shot customers indiscriminately,” the police said in a statement.
In the municipality of Toro, “a confrontation occurred between two local groups known as Los Flacos and Nueva Generación over narcotics control areas.” However, authorities have not yet clarified which group is responsible for the massacre.
FARC dissidents who did not lay down their weapons with the 2016 peace agreement also operate there. In recent weeks, rebels have attacked civilians and uniformed personnel in the neighboring Cauca department after a ceasefire with the government collapsed in that area.
The Valle del Cauca governorate is offering a reward of about $5,000 “for information that makes it possible to catch those responsible,” the Secretariat of Coexistence and Citizen Security of this department announced on its social network account X.
Among the victims are “working people, farmers dedicated to agriculture, people who have nothing to do with (the gang disputes),” Cristancho said.
“But we are identifying two or three (people) that they seemed to really have a special interest in,” the commander added.
AFP
