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Colombian activist killings hit record high in 2022: Ombudsman | Armed Groups News


The human rights ombudsman said 215 activists and social leaders were killed across Colombia last year, up from 145 in 2021.

More than 200 social leaders and human rights activists killed in Colombia Last year, the country’s human rights ombudsman stated that, as armed groups vie for control of drug-trafficking routes, attacks had increased.

Carlos Camargo said in a statement on Monday that 215 people human rights activists and social leaders — a term used to describe community, land and environmental leaders, among others — was killed in 2022.

That is the highest death toll ever recorded, up from 145 in 2021 and 182 in 2020.

“It has a serious impact on the very foundations of democracy, because these are leaders who care about the concerns of their people, who speak for and work for a country where human rights are respected. respect,” said the inspector.

The tally came like Colombia President Gustavo Petrowho took office last August, has pursued a plan of “comprehensive peace” to try to end the armed conflict that has killed more than 450,000 people in the South American country from 1985 to 2018.

Bogotá signed a peace agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebel group in 2016, leading the organization’s members to disarm. But some dissidents with the FARC rejected the deal and picked up weapons back.

Violence on the rise in Colombia in recent years, especially in areas beyond government control and where armed groups engage in drug trafficking and other illegal activities. The INDEPAZ research institute recorded nearly 100 massacres last year.

In some areas of Colombia, the killings are linked to “fighting between different groups and accusations that social leaders are working for the opposition party,” says Juan Pappier, senior researcher at the University of California, San Diego. on the Americas by Human Rights Watch, said. told Al Jazeera in July of last year.

“In other parts of Colombia, they are killed because they support a plan to replace the cocaine crop with food – which would obviously have the potential to damage the illegal economy of these very groups – or because they support the plan to recover land stolen in armed conflict,” he said.

Amnesty International has also raised alarms over the killings of social leaders in Colombia.

Erika Guevara-Rosas, the group’s Americas director, said: “Protecting indigenous, campesino and African-American communities in Colombia is ineffective because it does not address the structural causes of violence. force and often occurs without the appropriate involvement of those at risk. in one announced in February 2022.

Guevara-Rosas writes: “The defenders of at-risk communities are constantly left unprotected, and threats, assaults, and killings are constantly occurring in what is considered the world’s most dangerous country in terms of health and safety. protect human rights.

There is hope that the Petro’s push for “complete peace” and its willingness to negotiate with illegal armed groups will help reduce violence.

Late last year, the government resumed peace talks with Colombia’s largest remaining armed group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), in neighboring Venezuela. The second round of negotiations is expected to be held in Mexico soon.

Bogota also recently declared a bilateral ceasefire with two dissident group FARCas the criminal group Clan del Golfo and paramilitary forces in the Sierra Nevada region of Colombia.

“We hope that the initiation of negotiations with the ELN and a ceasefire with other illegal armed groups will lead to a reduction in attacks against social leaders and human rights defenders,” Camargo said. , the inspector, said Monday.

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