On Monday, the Colombian Institute for Development and Peace Studies (INDEPAZ) denounced that three Venezuelan construction workers were murdered in the Jamundi municipality for opposing the behavior patterns imposed by paramilitary groups. This crime constitutes the first massacre of the year in Colombia.
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Although the Colombian State and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia signed a Peace Agreement in 2016, attacks like this are increasingly common ever since in this Latin American country, where paramilitaries intimidate the population to promote their displacement and gain new territories for drug trafficking and illegal mining activities.
Senator Carlos Lozada blamed Colombia's President Ivan Duque for this situation since his administration has supported a military-type strategy rather than a peaceful and holistic approach to face the conflict.
“On Monday, Duque announced he will send two Army battalions and war equipment to the Arauca department, in which paramilitaries have killed at least 24 people so far this year. This decision is insane: we need political dialogue and long-term solutions, not violent policies that generate more murders and tragedies,” Lozada insisted.
Lozada also rejected that Duque has completely abandoned rural areas and extreme-poor neighborhoods to their fate, with which he has left armed groups operating with impunity in such territories.
“The civilian population cannot continue to pay the costs of the government’s misleading and shamelessness," he stressed, recalling that the Colombian president was proved to have taken bribes from drug cartels to finance his political campaign.
In 2021, armed groups perpetrated at least 96 massacres and murdered 171 social leaders. So far this year, 3,000 citizens have also been forced to displace from their territories.