Five gold miners, four Colombians and one Venezuelan, have been murdered in southern Colombia, possibly by an illegal armed group, authorities said today.

The victims were found in a rural area of ​​the municipality of Puerto Rico, in the province of Caquetas. All had bullet wounds to the chest and head, local government secretary Oscar Rodriguez told radio station W. He did not say when the killings took place.

“We know from the community that these young people were amateur miners and that they went to this area with equipment (…) to find gold“, he added.

According to Rodriguez, they were killed “as a result of clashes between armed thugs”.

A splinter faction of the (now disbanded) FARC rebel group, which did not sign the 2016 peace accord with the Colombian government, operates in Caquetá province.

Illegal mining and cocaine trafficking are the main sources of funding for the organizations that continue the armed conflict with the Colombian army, after the disarmament of the FARC.