{"id":31991,"date":"2025-04-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-13T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/csw-yeo.1wp.site\/magazines\/remember-their-names-6477\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T21:22:01","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T20:22:01","slug":"remember-their-names-6477","status":"publish","type":"magazines","link":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/magazines\/remember-their-names-6477\/","title":{"rendered":"Remember their names"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/a15f0cd35f4fa7b62829529e6c4b4e1b.png\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Many Christians in the north-central part of Colombia are on edge after the targeted assassinations of two church leaders in the space of two weeks. In both cases, the killings were carried out by masked hitmen on motorcycles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b><u>The Lora Rinc\u00f3n family<\/u><\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pastor Marlon Lora (43) and his wife, Yorley Rinc\u00f3n (40), led the Prince of Peace Villaparaguay Church in Aguachica. He oversaw 35 urban and rural churches in the region. The couple\u2019s daughter \u00c1ngela (24) worked as a communications and journalism professional for Aguachica\u2019s public utilities company. Their son Santiago (21) was a systems engineering student. Both were active in the local church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On 29 December, the family were fired at repeatedly while having lunch after a Sunday service. Pastor Lora, Yorley and \u00c1ngela were killed instantly. Santiago was severely injured and passed away in hospital a few days later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pastor Lora had mentioned possible threats to another pastor, though he hadn\u2019t given details. His supervisor, Pastor Berm\u00fadez, told us: \u2018Marlon was like many of us pastors \u2013 we keep quiet about many things so that everything runs smoothly, even while we carry heavy burdens inside.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b><u>Iv\u00e1n Garc\u00eda<\/u><\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Iv\u00e1n Garc\u00eda (28) was married to Pastor Karen Nierles, who leads the New Rebirth in Christ Church in Magdalena. A recovered drug addict, Iv\u00e1n had publicly declared his faith eight months before his death, and his enthusiasm contributed to the rapid growth of their congregation from seven to 30 committed members. Pastor Nierles said her husband \u2018died loving the church. If there was a light bulb missing, he would get it. If someone needed something, Iv\u00e1n was always ready to help.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On 8 January, Iv\u00e1n was walking home from a prayer service at another church when hitmen appeared on the dark, rural road and shot him six times. Instead of running, the young preacher fell to his knees and raised his hands to God. He died in the arms of his 14-year-old stepdaughter. A woman who was with them stepped in front of Iv\u00e1n and was also shot, though thankfully survived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pastor Nierles said: \u2018A couple of days ago he told me that he was not afraid to teach the Bible, that his life was new. He told me, \u201cFor me to live is Christ and to die is gain.\u201d\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b><i>Spend a moment in silence for those who have lost their lives because of their beliefs.<\/i><\/b><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many Christians in the north- central part of Colombia are on edge after the targeted assassinations of two church leaders in the space of two weeks.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":20115,"template":"","regions":[139,137],"class_list":["post-31991","magazines","type-magazines","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","regions-colombia","regions-latin-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazines\/31991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazines"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/magazines"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazines\/31991\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41764,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazines\/31991\/revisions\/41764"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"regions","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions?post=31991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}