Missing Pastors family waiting for investigation

The young family of a missing Pastor are still waiting for the Colombian Government to launch an official investigation into his disappearance, exactly six months after it took place.

The Colombian Attorney General’s Office has informed sources close to Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) that an investigator has still not been assigned to Pastor William Reyes’ case despite significant pressure from CSW and other international human rights organisations.

The disappearance was first reported to the Attorney General’s office in Maicao on 1 October, 2008.

Forty-one-year old Pastor William Reyes from Light and Truth Inter-American Church went missing on 25 September 2008. He was travelling with a group of church leaders from the Fellowship of Evangelical Pastors of Maicao (FRAME), from Valledupar, Cesar, to his home in Maicao, La Guajira in northern Colombia. FRAME had been receiving threats from paramilitary groups and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas since March 2008.

More than 130 Christian leaders have been murdered in Colombia in the last few years.

Fighting began forty years ago with FARC paramilitary troops and the National Liberation Army (ELN) vying for power. Millions of people have lost their homes and murders take place every twenty minutes.

CSW’s Advocacy Director, Alexa Papadouris, said: “Our thoughts are with Pastor William Reyes’ wife and three children, 19-year-old William, 16-year-old Luz Nelly and 9-year-old Estefania as they bravely continue to face the reality of their father’s disappearance. We urgently call on the Colombian Government to take immediate steps to conduct a detailed investigation into Pastor Reyes’s disappearance and bring those who are responsible to justice without further delay”.

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