The United Nations listed 33 massacres in 2020 in Colombia and “strongly” condemns the spiral of violence at work in the country. These killings took place in territories plagued by armed groups, dominated by the underground economy, poverty and "a limited state presence". They also have "serious humanitarian consequences" , according to the UN. The latter lists as “massacre” any assassination of at least three people perpetrated at the same time by the same perpetrator or group of perpetrators.
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The latest massacre dates back to Saturday: at least seven men and one woman, under the age of 30, were murdered by armed men who broke into a farm where a birthday was being celebrated, in the municipality of Samaniego, Nariño (southwest), police told AFP. Less than a week ago, authorities also discovered the bodies of five black teenagers, aged 14 to 16, in a sugarcane field outside the town of Cali. Groups of delinquents are believed to be responsible for 78% of these murders. The vast majority (80%) is also located in departments where there are "enclaves of illegal coca production" , according to the UN.
The UN condemnation comes as the authorities and NGOs sounded the alarm on Sunday about a deterioration in the security situation in the country, despite the containment measures decreed to curb the spread of the coronavirus epidemic. The UN also recorded 41 killings of veterans of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) during the first half of 2020, a 10% increase over the same period last year. She is also investigating the murders of 97 conservationists in 2020.
The United Nations is overseeing the implementation of the peace agreement signed in 2016 between the government and the former Marxist guerrillas, of which 7,000 fighters have been disarmed. Despite the decrease in violence thanks to this agreement, Colombia remains in the grip of an armed conflict between guerrillas, paramilitaries, drug traffickers and security forces which in more than 60 years has claimed nine million victims. The South American country is the world's largest producer of cocaine, with some 154,000 hectares of coca plantations in 2019, according to the UN.