The bodies of eight Christians have been discovered in a mass grave in Colombia, weeks after they went missing while carrying out humanitarian and spiritual work.
The victims—Isaíd Gómez and his wife Maribel Silva, Carlos Valero, James Caicedo, Jesús Valero, Maryuri Hernández, Nixon Peñalosa, and Oscar García—had been summoned to meetings in early April by an illegal armed group in the south-central region of Calamar. All eight lived in the rural hamlet of Agua Bonita and were primarily members of the Evangelical Alliance of Colombia Denomination (DEAC) and the Foursquare Gospel Church (ICCG). They never returned.
Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), a religious freedom organization, reported that when the group failed to return home, their families reached out to representatives of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the guerrilla group operating in the area. FARC initially denied issuing any summons and later indirectly warned the families to stop searching, urging them to “consider the case to be closed.”
The mass grave was discovered in May after a captured guerrilla fighter’s phone was found to contain photographs of the detained leaders and, later, evidence of their deaths.
In response to the killings, the Evangelical Confederation of Colombia (CEDECOL) issued a statement calling for justice:
“We ask for prayer for peace and comfort for these families. We raise a firm voice of outcry and demand that authorities ensure these crimes do not go unpunished, that the investigation proceeds swiftly, and that real guarantees are provided for the protection of the lives and safety of spiritual leaders in Colombia’s most vulnerable regions.”
Colombian President Gustavo Petro condemned the killings, calling them “a grave affront to the right to life, religious freedom, and the spiritual and community work that so many people carry out in regions historically ravaged by violence.”
Although the FARC guerrilla group signed a peace agreement with the Colombian government in 2016, some dissident factions remain active. These groups continue to engage in violence and territorial disputes in several areas of the country.