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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Colombia Witnesses One of the Worst Killing-Sprees of 2022</h1>
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By Tanya Wadhwa
- Orinoco Tribune - August 8, 2022<br></div>
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<img src="https://orinocotribune.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Colombia-victims-human-rights-2-1536x864-1.jpg" alt="People holding candles in a public ceremony. Photo: Radio Nacional CO/Twitter" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="458" height="258">
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<font size="1">People holding candles in a public
ceremony. Photo: Radio Nacional CO/Twitter</font> </p>
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<div><p><strong>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</strong></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>According to the Institute of Development and Peace Studies (INDEPAZ), 20 citizens were murdered in <a href="https://indepaz.org.co/informe-de-masacres-en-colombia-durante-el-2020-2021/">six</a> massacres between July 24 and August 2. <a href="https://indepaz.org.co/lideres-sociales-defensores-de-dd-hh-y-firmantes-de-acuerdo-asesinados-en-2022/">Five</a> social leaders and <a href="https://indepaz.org.co/lideres-sociales-defensores-de-dd-hh-y-firmantes-de-acuerdo-asesinados-en-2022/">five</a> 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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>According to INDEPAZ, this was the 59th massacre of the year. In these massacres, at least <a href="https://indepaz.org.co/informe-de-masacres-en-colombia-durante-el-2020-2021/">208</a> Colombians have been slaughtered.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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 href="https://twitter.com/CNA_Colombia/status/1554638299251331073?s=20&t=aDoV7hsdcgno3IUHEwW55Q">a statement</a>.</p>
<p>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 <a href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/03/02/assassinations-of-colombian-social-leaders-shake-communities/">renowned peasant and political leaders Teófilo Acuña and Jorge Alberto Tafur</a>, who were members of the same process, were also assassinated earlier this year.</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>The Comunes Party, which emerged after the disarmament of the FARC as a part of the peace agreements, condemned his murder, <a href="https://twitter.com/ComunesCoL/status/1554150596952858628?s=20&t=RFGv2nmUGMngxJ7rqaSiug">stating</a> 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.”</p>
<p>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,” <a href="https://twitter.com/ComunesCoL/status/1554131363065896960?s=20&t=RFGv2nmUGMngxJ7rqaSiug">tweeted</a> the party.</p>
<p>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!,” <a href="https://twitter.com/ComunesCoL/status/1554154561463619584?s=20&t=RFGv2nmUGMngxJ7rqaSiug">said</a> the party.</p>
<p>Later, in <a href="https://twitter.com/ComunesAnt/status/1554202673947332610?s=20&t=olqb2JARXkCVL4-u3bBwEw">a statement</a>,
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.”</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>(<a href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/08/04/colombia-witnesses-one-of-the-worst-killing-sprees-of-2022/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Peoples Dispatch</a>)</p>
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