Newly uncovered video footage appears to show eight Christian leaders being transported by armed men along a Colombian river shortly before they were executed and buried in a mass grave.
The footage was recovered from the mobile phone of an alleged dissident of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), who is now facing charges related to the killings.
According to Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), the video depicts the victims — Isaid Gómez, Maribel Silva, Carlos Valero, James Caicedo, Jesús Valero, Maryuri Hernández, Nixon Peñalosa and Oscar García — being transported down the Itilla River to La Ojona farm, located near the site where their bodies were later found.
The recording reportedly also shows armed men photographing and interrogating the eight leaders before their deaths.
The victims, residents of Agua Bonita in Calamar, Guaviare, were summoned individually on April 4–5 by an illegal armed group. All eight belonged to the Evangelical councils Alianza de Colombia and Cuadrangular and had previously fled Arauca to escape persecution.
Their remains were discovered on July 1 in a remote area of Calamar after a disappearance lasting three months. Investigators located the mass grave after the May arrest of a guerrilla fighter who possessed a phone containing the images and video evidence of the captives and the crime scene.
Colombia’s Office of the Attorney General stated that the Christian leaders had been wrongly identified as members of the National Liberation Army (ELN) by FARC dissidents operating under the command of alias Iván Mordisco. Officials later confirmed there was no connection between the victims and the ELN.
Prosecutors reported that the captives were restrained with chains and ropes before being executed at close range and buried in the jungle to hide the evidence.
On Nov. 25, authorities formally charged Excehomo Pabón Amaya, known as “Morocho,” with aggravated conspiracy, forced disappearance, homicide, and illegal weapons possession. Investigators say he was part of the Armando Ríos Front, a faction formed after FARC’s 2016 peace agreement with the Colombian government.
CSW Advocacy Director and Americas Team Leader Anna Lee Stangl welcomed the progress but urged authorities to pursue all individuals involved.
She also expressed doubt that the victims could have been mistaken for ELN members, noting the ELN’s long-standing pattern of targeting Protestant communities. The eight leaders had already been displaced from Arauca following ELN threats, only to face additional violence in Guaviare.
FARC, both before and after the 2016 peace accord, has faced repeated accusations of suppressing religious freedom and is believed to be responsible for hundreds of church leader deaths in Colombia’s rural regions.
