Bogota - Suspected ultra-right death squads, striking after three days of violence by their Marxist rebel rivals, killed at least 26 peasants in two raids in northern Colombia yesterday, officials said.
In the village of La Loma, in north-west Antioquia province, about 50 heavily armed paramilitary gunmen in combat fatigues dragged 19 peasants from their homes, bound their hands behind their backs and shot them in front of the other villagers, a local government official, Mr Eliecer Agudelo said. In a separate attack, seven peasants were killed in Estados Unidos, a hamlet in northern Cesar province.