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Seventy-nine of these cities belong to the Cauca, Nariño, Choco, and Norte de Santander departments, where armed groups extort the population to develop drug trafficking activities.
On Thursday, the Ombudsman’s Office of Colombia warned that 274 municipalities are at are extreme or high risk of suffering armed attacks ahead of the legislative and presidential elections to be held on March 13 and May 29, respectively.
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Seventy-nine of these cities belong to the Cauca, Nariño, Choco, and Norte de Santander departments, where paramilitary groups often extort the population to develop drug trafficking and illegal mining activities.
Other 70 municipalities at risk are part of the Special Transitional Constituencies for Peace, where victims of armed conflict and ex-guerrilla fighters who signed the 2016 Peace Agreement between the Colombian State and the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) inhabit.
"The most likely attacks comprise armed strikes, gun plans, threats, and shootings against security agents, voters, and candidates,” Ombudsman Carlos Camargo detailed and urged the State to take urgent preventive actions in this regard.
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"Our people have the right to exercise their right to vote in peace," he pointed out, stressing that most of the paramilitary group’s operations against the civilian population occur due to the lack of State presence in rural areas.
On Thursday, the United Nations, the European Union (EU) delegation in Colombia, and 23 embassies urged armed groups to stop their operations ahead of the upcoming elections. "Such groups must respect the provisions of international humanitarian law," the UN stressed.
From March 2021 to January 2022, the Colombian Electoral Observation Mission (EOM) reported 455 violent acts against political, social, and communal leaders. Such figure represents a 113 percent increase in violence compared to the previous pre-election period, which ran from March 2017 to January 2018.
#Colombia #VideoViral #Video An environmental emergency where the culprits are criminal gangs pic.twitter.com/Tg5ZcD5Gou
— teleSUR English (@telesurenglish) February 8, 2022
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