Welcome to the Empire Files podcast. This is your host, Abby Martin. This is the audio of our show.

You can watch the episodes on our YouTube channel or at the Empirefiles.tv.

While nearly a year ago, Columbia celebrated the end to an armed conflict that claimed the lives of a quarter million people, political killings have actually increased behind the scenes.

In 2017 alone, at least 133 social leaders and activists have been murdered, and that's not

including dozens of ex-FARC combatants who were assassinated. The spike hit with the signing of

the peace agreement in 2016, up from 63 in 2015.

The victims of these killings are most frequently leaders and activists for indigenous rights,

coca crop substitution, Afro-Columbian rights, LGBTQ equality, and labor rights.

Some have been killed by state forces, but the majority have been carried out

by right-wing paramilitaries,

which have documented ties to corporations

and the Colombian government.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

reported that more than 60% of the killings

occurred in areas which were once protected by the FARC,

which withdrew its military presence in the peace

agreement.

I went to Columbia to investigate these types of killings, including a recent massacre of unarmed

campesinos deep in a remote jungle.

But I didn't have to go that far to find the violence.

Just outside of our hotel in Tumaco, there was a murder on our first day in town.

While here in Tumaco investigating the string of murders of social leaders,

...