José Dorién Jiménez: The shot murder of a local official deepens the crisis of violence in the south of Valle del Cauca

While the entire country lived the euphoria of the triumph of the Colombian National Team against Venezuela, Pradera, a small municipality in the south of Valle del Cauca, experienced a night of terror. The Secretary of Government, José Dorién Jiménez, was shot dead when he was in the main park of the town watching the party. Security videos, shared on social networks, show a man to arrive on a motorcycle, shoot him in several attempts and flee in a few seconds. All in the middle of the crowd. Two other people were injured.

With Jiménez’s, there are 114 murders against social and political leaders registered in the country, according to the counting of the NGO Indepaz. The victim belonged to the Conservative Party and had previously served as councilor of the municipality. “He stood out for his work in the municipality and for his struggle in favor of the territorial improvements of his community,” says the organization.

The rejection reactions soon arrived. The governor of the department that has as capital the city of Cali, Dilian Francisca Toro, described the fact of “unfortunate” and made available a reward of up to 100 million pesos (about 25,000 dollars) for those who deliver information to find the capture of the hitman. In turn, he convened a security council together with the public force to “take forceful measures.” For his part, the mayor of that city, Alejandro Eder, has called the National Government: “The generalized deterioration of security is not acceptable throughout the country that continues to kill Colombians. Recovering it must be the highest priority.”

The crime hypothesis are multiple. The attack occurred on the eve of an Assembly organized by the State Land Restitution Unit (URT), scheduled for this Wednesday and Thursday in Pradera, with the purpose of advancing in the task of restitution of land in the area, a thorny issue in the context of the armed conflict. The unit director, Giovani Yule, said that Jiménez was the one who “opened the doors” of his municipality to hold the meeting.

For her part, Governor Toro has assured in the FM that the official was exposed to risks for her work in dismantling the microtrafficking bands that operate in the town, as she accompanied the raids of the authorities of illegal experts. “He was in Pradera without any protection,” he told the radio station.

The South of the Valley is a fuse about to explode, where different armed groups operate, including at least three fronts of the FARC dissidents, and different local criminal gangs. So far, no group has attributed the attack. The shooting aggravates the situation of an apartment in terror, after the attack less than a month ago in Cali, against the city’s military air base. The explosion, one of the most serious attacks of the last decades, resulted in seven murdered people, all civilians, and more than 70 injured.

The Ombudsman’s Office issued an early alert for a possible “exacerbation of violence” in Pradera. According to the entity, “the current risk scenario is determined by the actions of two illegal armed groups operating in the focused area.” In the area the fronts Adam and Dagoberto Ramos operate, both under the umbrella of the dissidents led by aka Iván bite. They are in dispute by the town against the 57th Front Yair Bermúdez, another structure of the so -called dissidents of the extinct Farc, but that operates independently. Pradera is a “strategic corridor for the mobility of illegal armed groups” that unites the valley with Tolima and Cauca, on the other side of the mountains, and serves as “business center,” warned the Ombudsman.