Source: World Watch Monitor, February 14, 2019<\/p>\n
A Colombian pastor was killed as he left his church in the northwest of the country, in a region that has been plagued by violence from armed groups, local sources told World Watch Monitor.<\/p>\n
Pastor Leider Molina, 24, had just finished preaching in his church in Caucasia, Antioquia state in northwest Colombia, on Friday, February 9. As he stepped outside he was hit by five bullets. Molina was known as a passionate preacher and an active youth leader working for his church and city, 670km north of the capital Bogot\u00e1, the source said.<\/p>\n
The Caucasia region has suffered an escalation in violence for the last four months, according to the source. Armed groups fight for control of drug trafficking routes and the ownership of illicit crops.<\/p>\n
\u201cCommunist guerrillas, paramilitary groups, criminal gangs, and drug cartels all see the Church as an enemy to be eradicated because, thanks to the preaching and courageous action of leaders and pastors, many young people have renounced armed conflict and illegal activities,\u201d the source said.<\/p>\n
The church in the area is terrified, according to the source. \u201cSome Christians have fled with their families, while others have decided to stay awaiting the government intervention. Church leaders, however, continue their work despite the death threats,\u201d said the source.<\/p>\n
\u00bb Full story<\/a> also reports on two other pastors in the region killed last September.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Source: World Watch Monitor, February 14, 2019 A Colombian pastor was killed as he left his church in the northwest of the country, in a region that has been plagued by violence from armed groups, local sources told World Watch Monitor. Pastor Leider Molina, 24, had just finished preaching in his church in Caucasia, Antioquia … Continue reading COLOMBIA: Another Pastor Killed, Church Terrified<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-briefs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8365"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8368,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8365\/revisions\/8368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}