Colombian gangsters murder 10 peasants

Suspected gangsters murdered 10 workers on a fruit farm in northern Colombia on 7 November, firing "indiscriminately" before throwing a grenade at them, The Associated Press reported, citing police statements. The police were reportedly told that three gunmen gathered a group of workers on an estate in the district of Santa Rosa de Osos in the Antióquia department, and asked if the business was paying protection money; the workers apparently did not know or would not say, whereupon the gunmen began shooting. The massacre was attributed to the Rastrojos gang, the broadcaster Caracol reported on 8 November. Colombia's Defence Minister Juan Carlos Pinzón said in Bogotá on 8 November that "such barbaric acts have no explanation," though police commanders would travel to the zone to investigate, El Espectador reported. Pinzón said in an interview with Blu Radio that the incident was of concern as authorities had recently detained the presumed local head of the Rastrojos, dubbed 18. The governor of Antióquia Sergio Fajardo Valderrama also spoke to Blu Radio, lamenting that "the criminal phenomenon" continued even as leading criminals were caught. Separately a Venezuelan beauty queen and two Colombians were among five arrested in Venezuela at an unspecified date and being questioned for suspected ties to the Colombian drug trafficker Daniel "Crazy" Barrera, arrested last September. The detained, including Gabriela Alexandra Fernández Ocando - beauty queen for the Venezuelan state of Zulia in 2008 - may be charged with money laundering and criminal conspiracy, Caracol reported on 8 November.