Michelle Bachelet condemned the rise of “horrible …

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle bachelet condemned the increase in violence against peasants, indigenous peoples and descendants of Africans in Colombia. Bachelet called on the country’s authorities to take concrete measures to take care of the population and lamented that after decades of armed conflict, the “horrific violence” attributed to “non-state armed groups, criminal groups and other armed elements in Colombia” follow “normalized” especially in rural areas. This is where most 66 massacres and 255 deaths recorded this year, according to the United Nations. 2020 will undoubtedly be a year to forget if we consider the little progress made in the effective implementation of the Peace Agreement signed four years ago.

“Ms. Bachelet urgently calls on the Colombian government to develop effective initiatives to stop this wave of massacres shaking the world”, raised in dialogue with Page 12 Camilo González, director of the Institute for Development and Peace Studies (Indepaz). In Colombia, Indepaz defines a massacre as “the intentional mass murder of three or more persons protected by international humanitarian law and in a state of helplessness, under the same circumstances of time, manner and place”.

“Persistent violence” in Colombia

“So far this year, the Bureau of HIM-IS-IT for Human Rights in Colombia documented 66 massacres in which 255 people were killed in 18 departments of the country, “Michelle said Bachelet by a declaration. “It is tragic to see so many people being victims of persistent violence throughout the country,” denounced the former Chilean president, who included in the category of victims “those who remained” in the territory despite the violence and who “remain almost completely defenseless.”

Bachelet demanded “stronger and much more effective measures” from the Colombian authoritiesGiven the fact that the State must consider as a “duty” the simple fact of being “present” throughout the territory. “There is no action plan or public policy with President Iván Duque and This contributes to the reiteration of processes of violence, of impunity to continue and of indigenous communities to remain unprotected “, added the President of Indepaz, Camilo González.

The last massacre recorded in Colombia took place on Sunday evening, when at least three people were killed and five others were injured in the town of Cuturú, in the department of Antioquia. Indepaz pointed to the powerful Clan del Golfo as the potential culprit for the attack in which “about 50 men in camouflage uniforms and long guns” got out of their boats and shot Cuturú.

The government quickly accused drug trafficking and the various armed groups operating in the region of being responsible for the events. These are contested illegal businesses abandoned by the defunct guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). However, Indepaz called the diagnosis issued by Colombian Defense Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo “hasty” because taking on “the role of prosecutor and judge” not only “does not look good”, but also simplify the problem and mislead public opinion. “

“Those in charge often go to the places where the massacres were committed to chair the security councils until a few days after the incident.They offer rewards and leave without offering structural solutions to the phenomenon of violence, ”said Camilo González in this regard.

Disparate figures

“The figures we mention of the massacres are those that have been reported, but we fear that they are higher because the pandemic has hampered our efforts to document and verify the killings, ”said the spokesperson for the United Nations Human Rights Office, Marta Hurtado. The areas affected by this wave of killings are difficult to access and there is hardly any state presence.

In the absence of reliable official figures, each institution produces its own statistics. In this direction Indepaz goes beyond the United Nations by recording 84 massacres in Colombia so far this year, a figure comparable to 2005 levels. From the signing of the Peace Agreement in 2016 to December 15, 2020, 1,091 human rights defenders have been murdered. Of this total, 695 lost their lives under the government of Iván Duque.

“The Indepaz report shows how Despite opposition and implementation failures, the peace process is still in force and has prevented tens of thousands of casualties“declared González. For the researcher, Colombia is in the” tail of the war “and in a” traumatic transition “in which, on the one hand, the mobilizations for peace are growing, while in parallel there is forces which “want to break the agreements and lead the country to new cycles of violence. “

Although the historic pact with the FARC reduced political violence, Colombia is still embroiled in a conflict spanning nearly six decades that claims more than nine million lives among the dead, missing and displaced. The challenge that looms far ahead so that what has been achieved in the reduction of armed violence is not lost is the full implementation of the peace accords signed on September 26, 2016 under the government of Juan Manuel Santos.

Report: Guido Vassallo.