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Colombia: How armed gangs are using lockdown to target activists
May 21, 2020
On the first day of Colombia's quarantine, Carlota Isabel Salinas was shot dead outside her home.
Ms Salinas played a leading role in a women's organisation in Bolívar province in northern Colombia.
The region had already seen an increase in violence carried out by right-wing paramilitaries in the months before the coronavirus pandemic.
Since the start of the lockdown in late March, 28 activists and human rights defenders across Colombia have been murdered.
The killings are not a new phenomenon: more than 800 activists have been murdered in Colombia since 2016, according to the think tank Indepaz.
But community activists from different parts of Colombia have told the BBC that restrictions on movement imposed to curb the spread of virus mean that they have become even easier targets.
Stuck at home for most of the day and only venturing out to address emerging humanitarian needs in their community has turned them into sitting ducks.
'Scared for my family'
Dolores (whose real name has been withheld for her safety) is one of the leaders of a group of hundreds of mothers who promote women's economic empowerment in Catatumbo, a region in Norte de Santander province - along Colombia's border with Venezuela - which has borne witness to years of extreme violence.
Since the Colombian government signed a peace deal with the left-wing rebel group Farc in 2016, activists like Dolores have been under heightened threats across the country.
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