The United Nations expressed its concern about an increase of assassinations in Colombia of community leaders and rights defenders, particularly in the countryside.
In a press release on Friday, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights of the UN said that between January 1 and November 30, 57 social leaders were assassinated while another 35 suffered failed assassination attempts.
The killings increased after September 26, the day the Marxist FARC group made peace with the government. Since then, the UN said 13 community and rights leaders were killed.
“With concern, the Office observes that 75% of the homicide victims were carrying out their activities in rural environments, and that the methods of the killings and assassination attempts show a high level of sophistication to conceal the intellectual authors.”
United Nations’ Office of the High Commission for Human Rights
According to the UN, two characteristics stand out when looking at the locations of the killings.
1. On the one hand, the historical presence of the FARC-EP, which ahead of the signing of the first peace treaty began moving to the pre-grouping areas, leaving behind a void in their traditional sites where they imposed order.
This vacuum left by the FARC-EP was strengthened due to the general absence of the State. For example, if there is a problem between neighbors, before the FARC would “handle” this. Today, this is handles by whoever is strongest through the use of force.
2. Secondly, in all the areas affected by the violence in Colombia there exist few economic alternatives for people to survive, which has caused the existence of illegal economies like illicit crops and illegal mining.
The vacuum left by the FARC-EP, combined with the presence of illicit economies, has benefitted the emergence and expansion of all types of criminality, including the entry of other illegal armed groups who dispute the control of these economies, affecting people’s rights.
United Nations’ Office of the High Commission for Human Rights
The UN office said the violence targeting community leaders and rights defenders is related to:
- The vacuum left by the FARC-EP in rural areas
- The absence of the State
- The perception of certain actors who see human rights defenders as obstacles to achieve their economic or political interests
- The stigmatization of human rights defenders
- The use of force to settle disputes on behalf of the population
- The dispute between illegal armed groups over the control of illegal economies in these areas
- The few economic possibilities to sustain oneself
The UN urged the different layers of government to, as promised, effectively assume control of areas deserted by the FARC and begins, as promised, to promote economic activity as an alternative to illegal activity like drug trafficking or illegal mining.
Additionally, the international body urged mayors, governors and the national government alike to implement policies that effectively guarantee the life and physical integrity of the Colombian people, allowing them “to overcome the structural causes of violence.”
The Justice Ministry was called on to carry out its part of the peace process and effectively send authorities to areas previously controlled by the FARC, “to establish mechanisms of coexistence and the resolution of conflicts in line with the established norm.”
The UN called on the Prosecutor General’s Office to investigate not just the perpetrators of homicides, but also those ordering the killings and to clarify the contexts and motives of the killings that would allow the formulation of an integrated policy of preventing such homicides.
The killings have spurred fears of a repetition of the systematic killings of local and leftist leaders by paramilitaries and members of the security forces in the 1980s and 1990s after the FARC’s last attempt to enter politics.
The near extermination of the Patriotic Union Party, of which the FARC was part, spurred an even more violent response by the guerrillas and led to the most violent period of Colombia’s 52-year armed conflict.