Gilberto Echeverri Mejía [SEP] occupation
Gilberto Echeverri Mejía
Gilberto Echeverri Mejía (31 July 1936 - 5 May 2003) was a Colombian electrical engineer and politician who on 22 April 2002 was kidnapped by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - FARC-EP along with the then-Governor of Antioquia Guillermo Gaviria Correa among others while participating in a peace walk and held hostage until 5 May 2003 when he was murdered by the guerrillas during a botched rescue operation by government forces deep in the jungles. A Liberal party politician, he had previously served as Ambassador of Colombia
governor of Antioquia, Guillermo Gaviria Correa, his advisor for peace, former defence minister Gilberto Echeverri Mejía, and 8 soldiers. The FARC had kidnapped Mr. Gaviria and Mr. Echeverri a year earlier, when the 2 men were leading a march for peace from Medellín to Caicedo in Antioquia.
On 13 July 2004, the office of the United Nations' High Commissioner for Human Rights publicly condemned the group, given evidence that FARC-EP violated article 17 of the additional Protocol II of the Geneva Convention and international humanitarian law,