
Faith Comes Under Fire Amid Rising Attacks on Religious Leaders in Colombia
- By Geoffrey Peters --
- 28 Jan 2025 --
Just weeks after the Ombudsman’s Office in Colombia warned of death threats against religious leaders amid increasing religious freedom violations, a 43-year-old Evangelical pastor and two of his family members were killed after attending a religious service in the Latin American nation.
Pastor Marlon Lora of the Prince of Peace Villaparaguay Church, his 40-year-old wife, Yorley Rincon, and their 24-year-old daughter, Ángela Lora Rincón, were killed by armed gunman who fired repeatedly on the pastor and his family from a motorcycle in the municipality of Aguachica in northern Colombia on December 29, 2024.
The pastor’s 21-year-old son, Santiago Lora Rincón, sustained injuries in the attack, which occurred outside a restaurant following a church service, a stone’s throw from the national police station in Aguachica. Authorities responded swiftly to the atrocities.
In October, Colombia’s Ombudsman’s Office reported a 31 percent rise in violations of religious freedom rights between 2023 and 2024. The violations included “discriminatory treatment toward churches and religious denominations, as well as death threats against religious leaders and authorities.” Notably, death threats surged by 50 percent during the same period.
In its 2025 World Watch List, Open Doors International, a worldwide Christian outreach organization, ranks Colombia as the 46th worst country globally for Christian persecution.
“Guerrilla groups in Colombia often attack the Christians in their territories, especially if they think the Christians are opposing the ‘business’ of their associated drug cartels,” states the Open Doors report, elaborating: “Church leaders are particularly at risk because they try to influence the young people that guerrilla groups want to recruit.”
Lora and his church were affiliated with Missionaries Biblical Churches, through which he traveled, supervised and provided support to congregations in 35 urban and rural congregations across various regions of the country, according to the Britain-based watchdog organization Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW).
Pastor Giovanni Bermúdez, the couple’s direct supervisor, told CSW that Lora had voiced concerns about potential threats to another pastor but had not shared specific details. “Marlon was like many of us pastors,” Bermúdez remarked, adding that “we keep quiet about many things so that everything runs smoothly, even while we carry heavy burdens inside.”
In an interview with CSW, Pastor Divanit Alfonso Calle, President of the Association of Pastors of Aguachica, emphasized that Pastor Lora’s position as a board member within the organization had not led to any conflicts or threats. On the contrary, he and his family were deeply cherished by the Christian community in the municipality, and the couple’s children were actively involved in the local church and led typical lives. Their daughter Ángela worked as a communications and journalism professional at Aguachica’s public utilities company, while their son Santiago is pursuing a degree in systems engineering.
Anna Lee Stangl, CSW’s director of advocacy, urged the Colombian government to “ensure protection for religious leaders, who remain at risk of violence and intimidation because of their role as peacemakers in their communities.”
The massacre prompted responses from Colombian President Gustavo Petro and Alexander Jaimes, Director of Religious Affairs at the Ministry of the Interior. “We express our solidarity with the families of the victims and the religious community,” the Argentina-based online newspaper Infobae quoted Jaimes as saying in a statement.
The killings of the pastor and his family are not an isolated event.
On November 13, Ever and Gerson García Vélez, two brothers who were active members of a faith community in Valle del Cauca, were murdered on their farm by three men. Two days earlier, an evangelical pastor, Salvador Zapateiro Mercado, was fatally attacked under suspicious and unexplained circumstances in Cartagena while watching a football match at a local store. And on August 14, the home of pastoral couple Rodian Rodriguez and Kelly Medina was set ablaze, supposedly by neighbors angered by religious gatherings held outside their residence.
According to the Spanish newspaper El País, the national government has offered a reward of up to 50 million pesos ($11,000) for information regarding the murder of Lora and his family.
Photo credits: Photo by TEP RO via Pexels. Pexels license.