The troubling parallels between the killing of notary Héctor Bastidas Ibarra and the massacre of eight young people in Samaniego six years ago

The killing of notary Héctor Bastidas Ibarra has drawn attention to his earlier efforts to expose the massacre of eight young people in the same area of Nariño.

Authorities are working to establish who killed Bastidas and why. He was attacked on the afternoon of Aug. 29 in Santa Catalina, a rural area of Samaniego, prompting condemnation and alarm among political and social groups across the region.

Bastidas had served as a Samaniego councilman, run for mayor and later worked as the first notary in the Túquerres district. Friends and relatives described him as a social leader who worked quietly and with deep commitment.

He became especially visible after eight young people were killed at a farm in Santa Catalina on Aug. 15, 2020. Armed men entered during what had been a gathering of former schoolmates. The victims, aged 17 to 25, were mostly university students, high-school graduates and athletes who had returned home during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Bastidas and then-Senator Guillermo García Realpe helped bring the case to national attention. Their efforts led the Senate Peace Commission, accompanied by government peace officials and other lawmakers, to meet in Samaniego that year and call for a thorough investigation. The families of the eight victims were also recognized as victims.

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They secured a session of the Senate Peace Commission in Samaniego that same year, with the participation of the Peace Office and other lawmakers, to request a thorough investigation into the case, and the families of the eight young people were declared victims.