Cali on Saturday, March 16, after he celebrated mass, local officials and eye-witnesses said.
"Two guys came and opened fire and hit him three or four times, maybe even six times", his driver, Edilberto Ceballos, told a local radio network.
Witnesses said the 63-year-old member of the Catholic Church in South America, was gunned down by two men on motorcycles in Cali’s impoverished district, outside the church where he had just conducted a marriage ceremony.
Duarte was dead on arrival at Carlos Holmes Trujillo Hospital in Cali, the Cable News Network quoted hospital director Ricardo Vanegas as saying. TV footage showed people weeping outside the hospital.
It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack, but the Archbishop had reportedly been threatened after he frequently spoken out against drug barons and guerrillas. His private secretary has said that Duarte had often asked for police protection, most recently on the day he was shot, but his requests were denied, the British Broadcasting Corporation said.
The killing came as the Colombian army dealt its hardest blow against rebels from the Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia (FARC), since peace talks broke down on 20 February. At least 21 rebels were killed in several incidents, and the army also destroyed a cache of more than seven tonnes of cocaine.
Analysts said the priest had frequently condemned the FARC, as well as a smaller left-wing group, the National Liberation Army (ELN). He ex-communicated a number of ELN members after they kidnapped 150 worshippers from a church in Cali in 1999.
