The former mayor of Briceño, Antioquia, was murdered in front of his parents

José Danilo Agudelo, former mayor of the municipality of Briceño in the period from 2016 to 2019, was at his parents' house when he was attacked by armed men who shot him several times during the night of Monday, April 18.

'Cenizo', as the former president was known by the community and its neighbors, was leaving in the Parqueadero neighborhood of La Inmaculada of that municipality in northern Antioquia. At about 9:30 in the evening, on the street, in front of his parents' house, he was approached by the hit men.

Preliminary it became known that Agudelo had been shot twice, as reported by Blu Radio, and was taken in an ambulance for his care. He arrived at the health center of the municipality and later transferred to another one of greater complexity, but on the way, the former mayor died of the serious injuries.

The media Alerta Paisa assured that the former mayor was leaving in front of a local barbershop, when he was attacked by armed men without a word. Likewise, it seems that the former mayor was in the municipality during the Easter season, because he would be living in Medellin.

The authorities of Briceño held an extraordinary security council a few hours after the event, to give instructions on the investigations. Witnesses were summoned to collaborate with information to determine those responsible for the murder.

People close to José Danilo Agudelo said that he was considering participating again in the Briceño local elections for 2023, as well as continuing to lead community leadership actions.

Mayor Wilmar Moreno spoke about the incident through social networks. “This is a very regrettable fact that puts at risk and threatens the activity of people who in one way or another carry out public leadership activities. As Mayor, on behalf of all the institutions and the municipality, I drastically reject the crime that takes the life of a former mayor and that leads us all the population to raise our voice against all kinds of violence and especially that which attacks the sacred life of our citizens,” said the local president.

In this sector of the department of Antioquia, the Julio César Vargas structure of the Gulf Clan is present. There were clashes with the Army in the last months of 2021, a year in which there was an increase in violence by armed groups.

Otchoa Datcharry, head of the Medellín Subdelegation of the International Red Cross, said in dialogue with the newspaper El Colombiano that Briceño was one of the municipalities to which the conflict moved during 2021, along with Tarazá, Cáceres, Ituango and Valdivia in northern Antioquia.

Briceño is part of the special constituencies of peace as the areas most affected by the armed conflict in the country. When Agudelo took office in 2016, he was received with an imminent alert from the Office of the Ombudsman, in which they warned by the organization of the so-called Gaitanista Self-Defenses of Colombia (AGC or Gulf Clan) after the departure of the FARC, to the villages La Calera, Orejón, Alto de Chirí, Buena Vista, La Mina, Berlin and San Pedro belonging to the Pueblo Nuevo district and the La América, La Velez and Travesías villages.

Briceño was one of the laboratories of peace municipalities before the signing of the Agreement, with a program of voluntary substitution of illicit crops in 11 villages. According to the newspaper El Espectador, by November 2021, the advance was around 10%.

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