A small-town pastor was gunned down and killed as a result of what a prominent Christian watchdog group called “premeditated, targeted assassination.” Pastor Ivan Garcia, a recently-reformed member of an “illegal armed group” who turned his life over to Christ and helped grow a local church, was the victim of an apparent retaliation from the very group he had left just six months prior.
According to reporting on the shooting, Garcia’s wife, Pastor Karen Nierles, had been invited to lead a Bible study nearby church that fateful day and afterwards they were walking home with her 14-year-old daughter and several friends. Garcia’s stepdaughter was injured when a bullet hit her arm. Garcia himself was the recipient of six shots, two hitting him in the head, after two motorcyclists sped up and fired quick shots in succession.
Garcia’s death occurred in the northern region of Colombia this past January while walking along a road with family and friends upon the conclusion of a church gathering. Garcia, only 28 years old, had helped build a following at New Rebirth in Christ Church after walking away from his previous life just six months prior, only for his past to tragically catch up to him.
As the Christian watchdog group Christian Solidarity Worldwisde (CSW) said of the events, “[a]lthough Mr García was a former member of an illegal armed group before returning to his Christian faith, his wife told CSW that he had never mentioned receiving any threats or warnings. ‘A few days ago, he told me that he was not afraid to teach the Bible, that he had a new life. He told me ‘For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain’.”
CSW would add that Garcia’s slaying was “the second targeted assassination of a Protestant Christian leader in northern Colombia in the space of two weeks.” Just days before, the the 29th of December, another pastor, as well as his wife and daughter, “were all killed immediately after hitmen opened fire on them as they ate lunch at a restaurant following a Sunday morning church service in Aguachica, Cesar Department.” His son died later from injuries sustained in the shooting.
Despite the continued targeting of Christian pastors in the area, The Christian Tribune previously reported that Colombian law, which recognizes certain people require extra security in the face of violence, was amended to exclude providing protections to “religious leaders.” What is known as Decree 1066 changed previous statutes, leading many in the Christian watchdog and advocacy space to fight for more substantial protections.
“This decree was an amendment to a law that required the government to provide specific protective security measures to high-risk individuals, communities, and organizations. Decree 1066 amended this law to exclude religious leaders from the category of high-risk individuals eligible for protection,” The Christian Tribune wrote.
Speaking about the latest in a string of what appear to be “premeditated, targeted assassinations, CSW’s Director of Advocacy spoke forcefully about how the Colombian government needed to “take immediate action to reverse its changes to Decree 1066 to include a specific protection protocol which addresses the unique needs of religious leaders in Colombia”
She would further state that the “nature of the attack on Mr García, like the massacre two weeks ago of Pastor Marlon Lora and his entire family, indicate that these are premeditated, targeted assassinations…Religious leaders have long been a target of illegal armed and criminal groups for many reasons, including the role many of them take up as peacemakers and their willingness to use their influence in their communities to encourage others to reject participation violent and criminal activities.”