Tragedy struck in the small town of Aguachica, a place to the north of Bogota, where an evangelical pastor and his family were slain by horrible hitmen while they dined at a restaurant after a church service. The pastor, his wife, and one of his children were killed instantly, and the other son remains brain-dead in the hospital.
The bloody incident took place on Sunday, December 29. The slain evangelical pastor is 43-year-old Marlon Lora. Slain alongside him was his 40-year-old wife, Yorlay Rincon, and their 24-year-old daughter, Angela. They were all killed instantly by the gunmen. Santiago, the couple’s 19-year-old son, survived the initial attack but is in the hospital, in critical condition and brain dead. Video footage shows the hitmen approaching on a motorbike, then firing and speeding off.
According to the Aguachica authorities, the Daily Mail reports, the family had just left a religious service at the Prince of Peace Church, a church where Marlon is a pastor and Yorlay serves alongside him as a religious leader. Those authorities also noted, the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo says, that the hitmen were at the Prince of Peace religious service prior to the attack.
Though her work has apparently been ruled out as a motive for the shocking attack on the entire family as they shared a meal together after church, their daughter, Angela, was working as a journalist, a potentially dangerous profession in that part of the world. Further, she was a municipal council candidate for the Christian party Colombia Justa Libres in 2023.
The Aguachica Mayor’s office strongly condemned the attack after it occurred, and declared a curfew to protect other residents from being caught up in such violence. The office condemned what it said was a “violent act, perpetrated at close range and during the day is a reflection of the lack of respect for life and human dignity.”
Also commenting directly on the matter was Aguachica mayor Greisy Roqueme. He said, in a video posted to social media after the attack, “We cannot allow violence to steal our hope, so I demand that the National Government, the Minister of Defense and the Public Force turn their attention to the department of Cesar, but above all to the municipality of Aguachica.”
Further, departmental police commander Colonel Eduardo Chamorro chimed in with a statement and commented on how his officers were investigating the horrible triple homicide. He said, “We are conducting interviews, collecting videos and other judicial evidence. So far, we have no evidence of direct threats.”
As Marlon was an evangelical pastor and religious leader, as was his wife, the Evangelical Confederation of Colombia released a statement in which it expressed its condolences. Doing so, it said, “The Aguachica Pastors Association has seen the departure of a family that is an example of spiritual leadership in the region.” The Daily Mail, commenting on the slaying, notes that this murder of a pastor is far from exceptional in the country, reporting:
Pastor Marlon and his family’s murders are the latest in a string of violent attacks in Colombia.
On November 13 brothers Ever and Gerson García Vélez were murdered by three men on their farm in Valle del Cauca department.
Two days before, evangelical pastor Salvador Zapateiro Mercado was killed under in Cartagena while watching a football match at a local shop.
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