LGBTIQ+ community leader assassinated in San Andrés: second in a week on the island

The murders of social leaders in Colombia do not stop. On Thursday, March 17, the Institute for Development and Peace Studies (Indepaz) confirmed the murder of Luis Carlos Bustamante Fernández, a social, cultural leader and LGBTIQ+ community activist on San Andrés Island. With Luis, there would be 42 leaders and human rights defenders killed in 2022 and 1,328 since the signing of the Peace Agreement.

The body of the 40-year-old cultural leader was found on Thursday night, with signs of torture in the south of the Colombian island. With the murder of Bustamante Fernández, two cultural leaders have already been killed in San Andrés in the last week.

In addition, Bustamante Fernández is the first killed leader of the LGBTIQ+ community so far this year. According to data from the Ombudsman's Office, between 2020 and 2021 at least 98 people from the community were killed in the country, of which 77 were homicides and the rest were femicides.

The main victims are transgender women (27), followed by gay men (14) and lesbians (8), while the regions with the highest number of cases are Magdalena and Atlántico (6), Valle del Cauca (4) and Cesar and Sucre (4).

It is worth remembering that while resting at home, the ambassador of raizal culture, Fabián Pérez Hooker, better known as “Hety”, was assassinated. The musician from San Andres was part of the musical duo, Hety and Zambo. The artist died in the San Andrés departmental hospital on the night of Monday, March 14, after failing to resist the two bullets he received.

According to the TeleIslas Channel, the representative of raizal music and one of the kings of Creole in San Andrés, was in an intensive care unit with a reserved prognosis until the moment of his death, so he was scheduled to be transferred to a healthcare center in the interior of the country.

For its part, the Office of the Ombudsman had issued Early Warning 046/18 for Providencia and San Andrés Island, which noted “the persistence in the conditions of socio-economic vulnerability of the island and resident raizal population”. This fact, the entity noted, foresees the occurrence of cases of violence and attacks on life, integrity and personal freedom that could materialize in targeted homicides, enforced disappearances and recruitment.

According to Indepaz, in this area of the country there is influence from the Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, tentacles of the armed structure La Empresa and there is a presence of the Marian Infantry Battalion of the National Army.

You may be interested: Who was Hety, the singer known as the “king of creole”, killed in San Andrés

With the murders of Luis Carlos Bustamante Fernández and de Hety, two cultural leaders were killed in Colombia during 2022. According to figures from the Center for the Opening and Development of Latin America (CADAL), a total of ten murders of artists and cultural leaders were murdered in Colombia during 2021, nine by criminal organizations and one by state security forces.

Their information reveals that eight of the nine victims of criminal violence were premeditated murders that meet a clear profile. These are artists, mainly musicians, who carry out community tasks in different areas: the defense of environmental, cultural and social rights, work against violence and drugs that may include rehabilitation projects.

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