[News] Colombia Witnesses One of the Worst Killing-Sprees of 2022

[Anti-Imperialist News]

orinocotribune.com
<https://orinocotribune.com/colombia-witnesses-one-of-the-worst-killing-sprees-of-2022/>
Colombia Witnesses One of the Worst Killing-Sprees of 2022
By Tanya Wadhwa - Orinoco Tribune - August 8, 2022
------------------------------
[image: People holding candles in a public ceremony. Photo: Radio Nacional
CO/Twitter]

People holding candles in a public ceremony. Photo: Radio Nacional
CO/Twitter

*According to the Institute of Development and Peace Studies (INDEPAZ), 20
citizens were murdered in six massacres in the past 10 days. Five social
leaders and five ex-combatants were also assassinated in the same period*

Paramilitary violence continues to spill blood and wreak havoc in Colombia.
Reports from human rights organizations indicate that massacres, systematic
assassination of social leaders, and genocide of former combatants of the
demobilized Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla group
continue at a horrifying rate. In recent days, the country witnessed one of
the worst killing-sprees of the year and of the rule of the outgoing
government of far-right President Ivan Duque.

According to the Institute of Development and Peace Studies (INDEPAZ), 20
citizens were murdered in six
<https://indepaz.org.co/informe-de-masacres-en-colombia-durante-el-2020-2021/>
massacres
between July 24 and August 2. Five
<https://indepaz.org.co/lideres-sociales-defensores-de-dd-hh-y-firmantes-de-acuerdo-asesinados-en-2022/>
social
leaders and five
<https://indepaz.org.co/lideres-sociales-defensores-de-dd-hh-y-firmantes-de-acuerdo-asesinados-en-2022/>
ex-combatants
were also assassinated in the same period. The alarming number of deaths is
one of the highest death tolls registered during a week this year.

The most recent massacre was perpetrated on August 1 in the rural area of
Mercaderes municipality in the Cauca department where three young men were
reportedly killed after being held for sometime by an illegal armed group.

According to INDEPAZ, this was the 59th massacre of the year. In these
massacres, at least 208
<https://indepaz.org.co/informe-de-masacres-en-colombia-durante-el-2020-2021/>
Colombians
have been slaughtered.

On August 2, INDEPAZ reported the assassination of peasant leader José Luis
Quiñones in the Tamalameque municipality of Cesar department. According to
reports, he was killed in his home by unknown armed men who forcibly
entered it in the afternoon of August 2.

Quiñones was a member of the Dialogue Commission for South Bolívar, Central
and South Cesar, South Magdalena and Processes from Santander (CISBCSC), an
organization affiliated with the National Agrarian Coordinator (CNA) and
the People’s Congress (CdP). He was engaged in the process of recovering
land on the Matarredonda rural estate just before his death.

The CNA condemned Quiñones’ murder and held the conservative government
responsible. “This vile act was perpetrated by undercover agents of the
State acting on behalf of paramilitaries and in favor of the landowners in
the area,” said the CNA in a statement
<https://twitter.com/CNA_Colombia/status/1554638299251331073?s=20&t=aDoV7hsdcgno3IUHEwW55Q>
.

The CNA also denounced the “various acts of persecution, stigmatization and
assassinations of social leaders have been carried out in a systematic way”
in the Cesar department. It recalled that renowned peasant and political
leaders Teófilo Acuña and Jorge Alberto Tafur
<https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/03/02/assassinations-of-colombian-social-leaders-shake-communities/>,
who were members of the same process, were also assassinated earlier this
year.

The CNA called on national and international human rights organizations “to
speak out against these abuses and demand that the Colombian State and the
incumbent government guarantee the protection of communities and our
leaders.” It decried that the authorities “have denounced those responsible
for these brutal acts without carrying out corresponding investigation and
prosecution processes against them.”

According to INDEPAZ, Quiñones was the 110th social leader to be
assassinated in 2022, and the 1,337th since the signing of Havana peace
agreements in November 2016.

On August 2, INDEPAZ also reported the murder of ex-FARC guerrilla fighter
Rigoberto López Vallejo in the San Miguel municipality of Putumayo
department. He was killed by armed individuals on the night of July 31.
López was part of the reincorporation process and was registered in the
government’s Yarí Territorial Space for Training and Reincorporation (ETCR)
program.

The Comunes Party, which emerged after the disarmament of the FARC as a
part of the peace agreements, condemned his murder, stating
<https://twitter.com/ComunesCoL/status/1554150596952858628?s=20&t=RFGv2nmUGMngxJ7rqaSiug>
that
it was “clearly part of a systematic plan to exterminate peace signers. It
is no coincidence that in one month, 10 of them have been murdered.”

Hours before condemning López’s murder, the Comunes Party had denounced the
assassination of another peace signatory, Idelber Gómez Solano, who was
also in the reincorporation process. He was killed in the Puerto Caicedo
municipality in Putumayo. “Duque’s last week in office begins with the
assassination of Idelber Gómez Solano, the 259th victim of the government’s
sabotage of the implementation of the Peace Agreements. What a pain to
continue saying goodbye to human beings, with families and dreams, who
wanted Colombia to live in peace,” tweeted
<https://twitter.com/ComunesCoL/status/1554131363065896960?s=20&t=RFGv2nmUGMngxJ7rqaSiug>
the
party.

In the early hours of August 1, the Comunes Party reported and criticized
the assassination of ex-combatant Wiston Antonio Mosquera in the Bello
municipality of Antioquia department. “Stop the killings! Three murders in
one day…Duque is guilty by action and omission!,” said
<https://twitter.com/ComunesCoL/status/1554154561463619584?s=20&t=RFGv2nmUGMngxJ7rqaSiug>
the
party.

Later, in a statement
<https://twitter.com/ComunesAnt/status/1554202673947332610?s=20&t=olqb2JARXkCVL4-u3bBwEw>,
the Comunes Party called on “the international community, the UN, the IACHR
and the human rights organizations in Colombia and in the world to denounce
the extermination to which peace and its defenders are being subjected, and
to show solidarity in the demand for urgent measures to stop this state of
permanent massacre.” It also called on the incoming left-wing government
and President-elect Gustavo Petro “to prioritize the integral protection of
the life of peace signatories and social leaders.”

According to INDEPAZ, with López’s assassination, the number of
ex-combatants killed in 2022 reached 31, and 337 since the signing of peace
agreements. The Comunes Party reported that 342 ex-combatants had been
killed since the signing of peace agreements.

INDEPAZ published a report on August 2 detailing figures that show the
worsening of the situation in Colombia with the rise of violence during the
past four years of the Duque government.

INDEPAZ reported that between August 7, 2018 and August 1, 2022, 957
Afro-descendant and Indigenous community leaders, environmentalists, human
rights activists, land defenders, and peasant and social leaders were
assassinated in different departments by paramilitary and drug trafficking
groups operating in the country. Additionally, during this period, 261
peace signatories were murdered. In addition to these assassinations, 1,192
people were killed in 313 massacres.

The institute reported that during the said period, 2,366 people were
threatened and 555 were kidnapped. It also reported that during the Duque
administration, 220 cases of forced disappearance, 446 incidents of
confinement of civilians, 545 events of massive forced displacement, and
29,634 extortion cases were recorded. The Ombudsman’s Office issued 178
violence related early warnings in various parts.

INDEPAZ also presented in numbers how state violence intensified in the
country during Duque’s rule. The organization reported that the national
police committed 421 homicides during the Duque tenure. It also detailed
that during the national strike against Duque’s austerity policies, between
April 28 and June 30, 2021, 83 people were killed – 44 at the hands of
security forces, 96 suffered eye injuries, 35 were sexual assaulted, 66
were judicially framed, 898 reported violent interventions, and 1,747
suffered physical violence.

(Peoples Dispatch
<https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/08/04/colombia-witnesses-one-of-the-worst-killing-sprees-of-2022/>
)
<https://orinocotribune.com/author/yullma/>
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