Major emerald miner assassinated in Bogota

One of Colombia’s most important emerald miners was assassinated in the capital Bogota on Sunday amid an apparently ongoing dispute over stocks in a mining company.

Hernando Sanchez, one of the owners of Esmeraldas Santa Rosa, was assassinated inside his home in the exclusive Bosques del Marques compound in the east of Bogota.

Sanchez was apparently assassinated by a sniper eight months after his late business partner, Juan Aguilar a.k.a. “Pedro Orejas,” was killed in a similar fashion in the same neighborhood in August last year.

Sanchez survived an assassination attempt in 2012 because he was accused of stealing stocks in the mining company by convicted drug trafficker Julio Lozano, a.k.a. “Patricia,” and his business partner, Horacio Triana, who was extradited to the US in 2019.

According to Triana, Sanchez refused to give Patricia’s 5% of his shares in Esmeraldas Santa Rosa after the latter’s extradition in 2005.

Following his release from prison, Patricia allegedly moved to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), from where he allegedly continued to run his criminal empire with the help of paramilitary organization EGC.

President Gustavo Petro accused Patricia last year of trying to hire a sniper to assassinate him, a claim that was denied by the drug trafficker from UAE capital Dubai.