The UN expressed deep concern on Friday over the assassinations of human rights defenders in Colombia by armed groups who are taking advantage of the confinement of the new coronavirus to amplify their actions against these activists.
Read also: Coronavirus: the UN launches a “historic” initiative to accelerate the production of vaccines and treatments
From Geneva, Rupert Colville, spokesperson for the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, denounced the fact that 13 human rights defenders have been killed since the beginning of the year in the department Cauca (southwest), where armed gangs vie for control of drug trafficking and illegal mining. Three of these murders were committed in the "last days" , in the midst of a health emergency. "The situation in the Colombian department of Cauca (...) is deeply worrying, " he said.
The containment measures, aimed at halting the spread of Covid-19, "seem to have aggravated an already violent and unstable climate , " added Rupert Colville. The illegal groups "seem to take advantage of the confinement of most of the population to amplify their presence and control of the territory," he lamented. In addition to the assassinations of activists, there are death threats against peasant populations, especially indigenous people, according to the UN.
Cauca is a strategic region for the cultivation of coca leaf, the raw material of cocaine, and marijuana, as well as for the transport of drugs to the Pacific coast, from where it is exported to the 'Central America and the United States. And it is one of the zones which, with the departments of Antioquia (north-west), Arauca (north-east) and Caqueta (south), recorded the most assassinations of right-wing defenders humans since the signing in 2016 of the peace agreement with the guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), since disarmed.
More than half of the 108 murders recorded by the United Nations in 2019 occurred in these departments. At the end of March, the Organization of American States (OAS) Peace Process Support Mission also condemned the recent killings of community leaders and human rights defenders, in full confinement. Although the intensity of the armed conflict, which has been undermining Colombia for more than half a century, has diminished thanks to the agreement with the Farc, this country still faces violence, with the presence of gangs of paramilitary origin and the National Liberation Army (ELN), the last active rebellion, who confront the police.