Colombian Senator Feliciano Valencia speaks during a ceremony in Tacueyo, Cauca department, on October 29, 2020. (Credit: Luis Robayo / AFP / Getty Images)
(CNN Spanish) -
Senator Feliciano Valencia, of the Alternative Indigenous and Social Movement of Colombia (MAIS), denounced this Thursday having suffered an attack on a route between the El Palo and Tacueyó township in Toribío, Cauca department, in the southwest of the country.
"I came out unscathed thanks to mother nature," he wrote on his Twitter account.
The Association of Indigenous Cabildos del Norte del Cauca (ACIN) said in a statement that the truck in which Valencia was traveling had three bullet wounds on the sides and in the back.
They indicated that the legislator was heading to a commemoration for the massacre of five indigenous people in October 2019. And that he is safe with the accompaniment of a guard.
Defense Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo condemned the incident with “firmness and indignation”.
In a tweet, he affirmed that he told Valencia the determination of the public force to work against criminal groups that operate in the north of Cauca with the illicit drug business.
For her part, the Minister of the Interior, Alicia Arango, rejected the fact and said that they will give "complete speed" to clarify the violent act.
Feliciano Valencia was one of the promoters of the so-called indigenous minga, which last week carried out a massive march to Bogotá.
The objective was to denounce the murders of several of its members and massacres of civilians, as well as request protection from the national government and greater social investment in the region.