An attack by hitmen left four people dead and another six injured in a commercial establishment in the Colombian city of Barranquilla (north), local authorities reported Monday.
The commander of the Barranquilla Metropolitan Police, General Jorge Urquijo, told reporters that the events occurred in the El Santuario neighborhood, located in the south of the city, when the victims were chatting while watching the soccer match between Junior and Independiente Medellín, for the local league.
The senior official indicated that in coordination with the Barranquilla mayor’s office, a reward of 80 million pesos (about $17,500 today’s dollars) is being offered for anyone who provides information about the perpetrators of the massacre.
According to the first information, the perpetrators were two hitmen who were expected by two other motorcyclists in which they fled.
General Urquijo indicated that “at this moment we are working on the collection and analysis of videos from security cameras in the sector to identify vehicles linked to this criminal act.”
“Likewise, the pertinent verifications are carried out to analyze possible motives, based on investigative lines arising from antecedents and information from human sources,” he noted.
This massacre in the city of Barranquilla occurs four months after another that occurred in the north of the city in which six people were murdered, according to the authorities, due to settling scores between groups of criminals who are disputing territory for trafficking of drugs.
Among the authorities of Barranquilla, the main city in northern Colombia, there is concern about the increase in the homicide rate. According to the balance, the metropolitan area in 2022 closed with 785 crimes, linked to hit men, femicides and intrafamily violence.
On Sunday the authorities also reported that unknown persons murdered six people in two massacres carried out in the departments of Córdoba and Antioquia.
The first of the attacks occurred in the municipality of San Carlos (Córdoba), where unknown persons murdered three people in a cockpit in the El Recreo farmhouse.
In the second, three people were shot in the municipality of Ciudad Bolívar (Antioquia), in a massacre in which two other people were also injured.
In 2022, the UN Human Rights Office in Colombia verified 83 cases of massacres and 112 homicides of human rights defenders.
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