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Sponsored by the far-right politicians and businessmen, the paramilitary violence has become unstoppable and has turned the Colombian State into a "failed state."
Venezuela's Foreign Affairs Minister Jorge Arreaza on Monday rejected statements made by Colombia's President Ivan Duque in which he claimed that powerful leaders of criminal gangs and dissidents of the defunct FARC guerrillas are based in Venezuelan territory.
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"Don't be so cynical. You are at the head of a narco-government that exports drugs and violence. A factory of terrorists in power that has liquidated the option of internal peace and sends mercenaries to generate violence and assassinate presidents in the region," Arreaza told Duque through social networks.
Earlier on Monday morning, Duque asked the United States to include Venezuela in the list of state sponsors of terrorism. This happened during the installation of the 3rd International Seminar on Analysis and Prevention of Urban Terrorism in Bogota where Duque asked the US ambassador to Colombia Philip Goldberg for this inclusion.
Without showing any evidence to support his accusations, the Colombian president said that Venezuela "protects" members of an armed group that would have been responsible for the attack on an army battalion and the presidential helicopter in Cucuta.
Data from international organizations, however, depict a very different picture. Besides being the largest cocaine producer in the world, Colombia is a country where economic and political elites have deployed permanent violence against citizens during the last 6 decades.
�� On #Colombia NARCO Dictator Duque will send the Senate the "anti-vandalism" law that will classify the protest as a crime and grant impunity to the ESMAD death squads to violate human rights and not be prosecuted in court. https://t.co/CT0dt9jsgm
— P KELLY (@Phil_Kelly_) July 2, 2021
Sponsored by the far-right politicians and businessmen, the paramilitary violence has become unstoppable and has turned the Colombian State into a "failed state."
In the last week, for example, the actions of Colombian illegal groups have forced some 3,000 inhabitants of the Ituango municipality to abandon their homes and move to other areas of the country. So far this year, paramilitary groups linked to drug trafficking have generated 54 massacres and assassinated 102 social leaders.
The links between Colombians political class and drug trafficking have become increasingly obvious and blatant. Local outlet La Nueva Prensa pointed out that the current president of the House of Representatives is Jennifer Arias, a politician linked to far-right groups led by ex- President Alvaro Uribe, who supported Ivan Duque in his run for the presidency.
Her brother is a pilot who was captured in Miami during a drug trafficking operation. Her father was convicted of murder and linked to corruption, as recalled by legislator Alberto Ortiz through social networks.
#Colombia | Ivan Duque's administration cracks down on social protests. pic.twitter.com/HT1d9JHrx4
— teleSUR English (@telesurenglish) July 26, 2021
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