At least 11 killed, hundreds displaced amid combat in southwest Colombia
April 19, 2021
At least 10 alleged guerrillas and one soldier were killed, and 250 locals were displaced in an escalation of armed conflict in southwest Colombia.
Seven soldiers were injured in the fighting with the Carlos Patiño Front in Argelia, a rural municipality in the Cauca province, the army said Saturday.
The Carlos Patiño Front is one of multiple groups formed by dissident former members of guerrilla group FARC, which demobilized and disarmed in 2017.
‘Guerrillas using civilians’
At least three civilians were seriously injured by a landmine when trying to flee the area where the military and the guerrillas were fighting, according to newspaper El Espectador.
What’s new? Coca crops have set record yields in Colombia since the 2016 peace accord with FARC guerrillas, persuading the government to expand its forced eradication campaign with the backing of U.S. authorities. Bogotá claims that eliminating the plant will reduce rural violence.
Why does it matter? Insecurity in Colombia’s countryside has steadily got worse in recent years as armed groups vie with one another and the military for supremacy. Enhanced eradication, and potentially aerial fumigation, could intensify violence by forcing farmers into the clutches of armed outfits, while failing to stop the replanting of coca.
What should be done? Colombia and the U.S., the lead outside backer of tough counter-narcotic policies in Latin America, should turn the page on using force against coca farmers in a bid to dent global cocaine supply. Boosting rural economies, forging ahead with crop substitution and avoiding clashes with cultivators would make for better policy.
Massacres and Killings of Social Leaders Impede Peace in Colombia
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by Gimena Sánchez-Garzoli
In recent months, the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) has received various requests for the protection of social leaders and ethnic minorities, as well as human rights cases requiring intervention. These have surpassed our staff’s ability to act on all of them in our usual, expeditious manner. As such, we are constrained to publishing alerts in a parceled manner. Below are the first set of cases we’ve received.
We cannot stress enough that international actions are required to stop the human rights rollbacks occurring as a result of the inadequate implementation of the 2016 peace accord, especially the Ethnic Chapter; resistance to advance a humanitarian dialogue with the National Liberation Army (