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News > Colombia

Colombia's Inspector General Says Activist Murders Need Probe

  • A man displays a billboard protesting the murder of social leaders in Bogota, Colombia, Sep. 5, 2018.

    A man displays a billboard protesting the murder of social leaders in Bogota, Colombia, Sep. 5, 2018. | Photo: EFE

Published 10 January 2019
Opinion

The killing of social leaders is Colombia's main problem at the moment, according to Inspector General Fernando Carrillo.

Colombia's Procurador (or Inspector General) Fernando Carrillo announced Wednesday that he will convene a "reunion for life" to address the situation of social leaders, following the murders registered at the beginning of this year.

RELATED:
Colombia: Senate Peace Commission Demands State Action Against Murder of Social Leaders

Carrillo will invite President Ivan Duque as well as ministers responsible for portfolios related to population protection, and commanders of the Public Force to the meeting, El Espectador has reported.

"We believe that we must begin to derive responsibilities in relation to the elimination and extermination of social leaders, which is a real humanitarian tragedy in Colombia," Carrillo said, adding that the murder of social organizers "is the first major problem that the country has at this time."

According to El Tiempo, Carrillo asked Duque's administration to urgently convene the National Commission of Security Guarantees (CNGS) so that authorities and civil society can evaluate the threats against social organizations and decide appropriate actions to be counter the epidemic.

"It is unprecedented and inadmissible that... this bloodbath does not stop," Carrillo complained and warned that the state-led personal protection schemes have failed, making it necessary for "a real change [that goes] beyond rhetoric and good intentions."

"Attorney asks governors and mayors to protect social leaders."

The CNGS was created in Feb. 2017 to design and monitor public policies related to the dismantling of organizations or behaviors that threaten the implementation of peace agreements in Colombia.

Despite the existence of the commission, the number of murders of social leaders has not diminished but, instead, increased since then.

An Ombudsman's Office report indicated that, during 2018, some 164 social leaders were killed, of which 86 homicides occurred since President Ivan Duque to the oath of office.

Among the victims are human rights activists, community members, Campesinos, Indigenous peoples and demobilized former guerrillas, who died at the hands of illegal, violent groups that have infiltrated various regions of the country where the presence of the Colombian government is lacking.

The Consultancy for Human Rights and Displacement (CODHES), which is an international NGO promoting the rights of people displaced by internal conflicts, identified more than 350 social leaders who have been killed since the peace agreement between President Juan Manuel Santos' administration and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), signed in Nov. 2016.

However, according to the figures of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the number of murders would have reached 454 cases between November 2016 and December 2018.

The Colombian press has already recorded 7 murders of social leaders since Jan. 1, 2019. The last victim was Miguel Antonio Gutierrez, the 40-year-old president of La Victoria Neighborhood's Community Board, who was shot to death at his residence in the Caqueta department, in southern Colombia.

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