Petro reveals strategy to change Colombia’s socio-economic model
How Colombia’s judicial reform seeks to solve prison...
Colombia’s chief prosecutor says paramilitaries kidnapped, interrogated investigators
Colombia’s war crimes tribunal to press criminal charges...
Colombia jails US citizen on femicide charges
Colombia preparing tropical paradise for tourism after 500...
Hacktivists leak 178,000 documents from Colombia’s military
Colombia sentenced for exterminating political party
Colombia’s capital Bogota awarded for failing crime policy
OAS urges Colombia to release people arrested over...
  • About
  • Support
  • Newsletter
  • Contact
Colombia News | Colombia Reports
  • News
    • General
    • Analysis
    • War and peace
    • Elections
    • Economy
    • Culture
    • Sports
    • Science and Tech
  • Travel
    • General
    • Bogota
    • Medellin
    • Cali
    • Cartagena
    • Antioquia
    • Caribbean
    • Pacific
    • Coffee region
    • Amazon
    • Southwest Colombia
    • Northeast Colombia
    • Central Colombia
  • Data
    • Economy
    • Crime and security
    • War and peace
    • Development
    • Cities
    • Regions
    • Provinces
  • Profiles
    • Organized crime
    • Politics
    • Armed conflict
    • Economy
    • Sports
  • Lite
  • Opinion
News

3 Colombia rights defenders killed, 2 attacked in 1 weekend

by David Maas November 21, 2016
2.7k

Three Colombia human rights defenders were killed and two barely survived assassination attempts over the weekend amid growing security concerns in the country.

The assassinations are the latest in a series of violent incidents targeting human rights workers as the country prepares for the signing of the peace accords between the government and the Marxist FARC rebel group.


FARC chief leaves for Colombia to formally sign new peace deal

The attacks took place in the departments of Caqueta, Meta and Nariño.

The situation is especially worrying in Caqueta, where pamphlets have allegedly been circulated by the formally demobilized United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), warning “militia members and frontmen of the FARC” that they “are here to stay,” according to weekly Semana.

A paramilitary and drug trafficking group very active during the Colombian armed conflict from 1997-2006, the AUC largely demobilized ten years ago.


The FARC’s biggest fear: Colombia’s paramilitary groups

So far this year, more than 70 human rights defenders have been killed in Colombia, which has alarmed authorities to the presidential level, considering the government is in the process of making peace with the country’s largest rebel group, the FARC.

The killings spur chilling memories of the 1980s when paramilitary groups assassinated thousands of people associated with the guerrillas’ attempt to enter into politics, exactly like they are now.

President Juan Manuel Santos took to Twitter to call a meeting of a high-level human rights commission “to take actions against the crimes and aggression against social leaders. Peace does not wait.”

Convoqué a Comisión de alto nivel de DD.HH para tomar acciones contra crímenes y agresiones a líderes sociales. Paz en Colombia no da espera

— Juan Manuel Santos (@JuanManSantos) November 20, 2016

FARC peace negotiator Pablo Catatumbo also tweeted, condemning the “systematic murders of peasant leaders” and demanding the “immediate implementation of the Security Guarantees Agreement,” referring to the demobilization pact that is part of the peace deal.

Condenamos asesinato sistemático de líderes campesinos.
Exigimos aplicación inmediata Acuerdo Garantías de Seguridad
Vuelve la guerra sucia.

— Pablo Catatumbo (@PCatatumbo_FARC) November 20, 2016

Both sides have called for the rapid implementation of the peace accords in light of the increasingly fragile ceasefire and the apparent increase in assassination attempts on human rights defenders.

human rightspolitical violence

Trending

  • Colombia jails US citizen on femicide charges

  • Colombia’s war crimes tribunal to press criminal charges over failed plot to extradite former FARC chief

  • Petro’s reveals strategy to change Colombia’s socio-economic model

For patrons

Downloads for patrons

Related articles

  • Colombia sentenced for exterminating political party

  • OAS urges Colombia to release people arrested over 2021 protests

  • Poverty, violence and Colombia’s State failures main human rights concerns in 2022: HRW

  • Twitter
  • Email
  • Rss

@2008-2019 - Colombia Reports. All Rights Reserved.
Powered by Digitale Zaken and Parrolabs


Back To Top
Colombia News | Colombia Reports
  • News
    • General
    • Analysis
    • War and peace
    • Elections
    • Economy
    • Culture
    • Sports
    • Science and Tech
  • Travel
    • General
    • Bogota
    • Medellin
    • Cali
    • Cartagena
    • Antioquia
    • Caribbean
    • Pacific
    • Coffee region
    • Amazon
    • Southwest Colombia
    • Northeast Colombia
    • Central Colombia
  • Data
    • Economy
    • Crime and security
    • War and peace
    • Development
    • Cities
    • Regions
    • Provinces
  • Profiles
    • Organized crime
    • Politics
    • Armed conflict
    • Economy
    • Sports
  • Lite
  • Opinion