Death squads in Colombia are taking advantage of coronavirus lockdowns to murder rural activists, local non-governmental organizations have warned.
When cities across the country introduced local quarantine measures last week, three social leaders were killed, and as the country prepares to impose a national lockdown today, activists have warned that more murders would follow.
High-profile activist Marco Rivadeneira was murdered in southern Putumayo Department, Alexis Vergara was shot dead in western Cauca Department and Ivo Humberto Bracamonte was killed on the eastern border with Venezuela.
Photo: AFP
Colombia is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for activists and community leaders, who often fall foul of armed groups fighting for territory.
Since a historic peace deal was implemented in early 2017 with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) leftist rebel group, 271 activists have been killed.
Now, with the government focused on the pandemic, activists have said that they are even more at risk.
“I’ve been getting more death threats since everyone started talking about the coronavirus,” said Carlos Paez, a land rights activist in a cattle-ranching region near the northern border with Panama. “One message said that they know who I am — and that now is the time to take me out.”
Some of the armed groups are dissident FARC fighters who refused to hand in their guns; others belong to smaller rebel armies and rightwing paramilitary militias.
Whatever their purported ideology, all make their money in drug trafficking, illegal mining and extortion rackets, and all view social leaders as an obstacle to those lucrative economies.
As the government focuses its resources on stemming the coronavirus outbreak — which has claimed three lives in Colombia amid 277 confirmed cases — normal security protocols have been thrown into disarray.
“They are playing with our lives because they know that our bodyguards, the police and the justice system are going to be even less effective than they usually are,” Paez said. “It’s horrible. I’m scared for my life.”
Colombia’s war with FRC and other armed groups has claimed at least 260,000 lives and forced 7 million people from their homes. Now, with much of the country confined indoors ahead of a 19-day nationwide quarantine that begins today, non-state actors are operating more brazenly.
Activists fear that the nationwide quarantine has put them in a bind. Staying in one place makes them sitting targets, but moving around puts them at risk of infection.
“We are being killed, like always,” said Hector Marino Carabali, a rights activist in Cauca, who usually travels in an armored car with a security detail provided by the government. “The government has taken drastic measures to fight the virus, but done nothing to protect us now or to tell us about how we can do our work. Curfews and lockdowns always affect the most vulnerable.”
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights last week reported that armed groups were continuing to commit brutal human rights abuses in Choco Department, where Paez leads a community.
Three people were beheaded, with one executed in front of their village, and a pregnant woman was murdered.
A coalition of local groups and more than 100 rural communities called for a ceasefire among armed groups during the outbreak, saying that “the emergency situation deserves our focus as a country and as a society to take on this challenge.”
Four contenders are squaring up to succeed Antonio Guterres as secretary-general of the UN, which faces unprecedented global instability, wars and its own crushing budget crisis. Chile’s Michelle Bachelet, Argentina’s Rafael Grossi, Costa Rica’s Rebeca Grynspan and Senegal’s Macky Sall are each to face grillings by 193 member states and non-governmental organizations for three hours today and tomorrow. It is only the second time the UN has held a public question-and-answer, a format created in 2016 to boost transparency. Ultimately the five permanent members of the UN’s top body, the Security Council, hold the power, wielding vetoes over who leads the
A humanoid robot that won a half-marathon race for robots in Beijing on Sunday ran faster than the human world record in a show of China’s technological leaps. The winner from Honor, a Chinese smartphone maker, completed the 21km race in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, said a WeChat post by the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, also known as Beijing E-Town, where the race began. That was faster than the human world record holder, Ugandan Jacob Kiplimo, who finished the same distance in about 57 minutes in March at the Lisbon road race. The performance by the robot marked a significant step forward
An earthquake registering a preliminary magnitude of 7.7 off northern Japan on Monday prompted a short-lived tsunami alert and the advisory of a higher risk of a possible mega-quake for coastal areas there. The Cabinet Office and the Japan Meteorological Agency said there was a 1% chance for a mega-quake, compared to a 0.1% chance during normal times, in the next week or so following the powerful quake near the Chishima and Japan trenches. Officials said the advisory was not a quake prediction but urged residents in 182 towns along the northeastern coasts to raise their preparedness while continuing their daily lives. Prime
HAZARDOUS CONDITION: The typhoon’s sheer size, with winds extending 443km from its center, slowed down the ability of responders to help communities, an official said The US Coast Guard was searching for six people after losing contact with their disabled boat off the coast of Guam following Typhoon Sinlaku. The crew of the 44m dry cargo vessel, the US-registered Mariana, on Wednesday notified the coast guard that the boat had lost its starboard engine and needed assistance, Petty Officer 3rd Class Avery Tibbets said yesterday. The coast guard set up a one-hour communication schedule with the vessel, but lost contact on Thursday. A Coast Guard HC-130 Hercules aircraft was launched to search for the six people on board, but it had to return to Guam because of
RSS