Gunmen shot and killed a former regional ombudsman in northern Colombia today in the latest attack against human rights monitors in the war-torn nation.
Mr Ivan Villamizar, a university dean who worked as the government-appointed ombudsman in the violent Norte de Santander province between 1996 and 1999, was killed in the city of Cucuta near the Venezuelan border as he drove home.
It was not clear who was responsible.
Since 1997 more than 25 human rights activists have been murdered in Colombia. Last week, London-based Amnesty International urged the government of President Andres Pastrana to protect rights monitors in the industrial port city of Barrancabermeja, near Cucuta, which has been the scene of recent clashes between right-ring death squads and socialist rebels.
Reuters