Paramilitaries Kill Activist in Colombia

Rightist paramilitary gunmen have assassinated a leftist community activist who was planning a run for local office in Colombia, police said Tuesday.

The body of Carlos Restrepo was found in a barren lot outside San Luis, hours after armed men dragged him out of a community meeting Saturday in the small town, 78 miles west of Bogota, the capital.

Restrepo, 44, had been shot several times in the head.

The assailants, who arrived in a group of about 20, identified themselves as members of the nationwide paramilitary umbrella group, United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, police in the state capital, Ibague, said.

Pamphlets found next to Restrepo’s body Saturday accused him of collaborating with the South American country’s largest leftist rebel movement, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

A onetime candidate for local office backed by former members of the now-defunct Marxist M-19 guerrilla movement, Restrepo had announced his candidacy for October elections for the town council in San Luis.

He was also the publisher of Tangente, a small monthly circular containing local news about San Luis, a town with about 8,000 residents.

Colombia’s paramilitary militias, which are backed by landowners, are waging a “scorched earth” campaign against suspected leftists, committing massacres and executions. The government claims it has no ties to the groups, although human rights groups charge that the militias enjoy tacit and sometimes direct support from the military.

Also on Tuesday, leftist National Liberation Army rebels, Colombia’s second-largest insurgent group, freed a congressman 17 months after kidnapping him in the hijacking of a domestic airliner.

The rebels handed over lawmaker Juan Manuel Corzo to the Red Cross in mountains near the northeastern town of San Pablo.

He was then flown by helicopter to the nearby city of Bucaramanga, where he reported being in good health except for a knee injury sustained in captivity.

With Corzo’s release, only three of the 41 passengers and crew members aboard the Avianca flight forced down in rebel territory remained in ELN hands.