Colombia: 43 People Killed In Cauca Department So Far This Year

On Wednesday, Colombia’s Institute for Development and Peace Studies (INDEPAZ) denounced that selective violence has significantly increased in the Cauca department, in which 43 people have been murdered in 14 massacres so far this year.

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"This territory currently lives an exacerbation of the war that paramilitary gangs perpetrate to gain territories for their drug trafficking and illegal mining activities,” Indigenous leader and Senator Feliciano Valencia lamented, stressing that the gangs’ violence is biased against farmers and social leaders.

The National Army and Police have not been able to prevent the assassinations or contain the advance of the gangs even though President Ivan Duque created a national unit to identify, locate and prosecute perpetrators of mass killings in August 2020.

"Duque continues to ignore the warnings that the Ombudsman’s Office issues to prevent criminal actions. The special unit has either organized permanent military operations in the departments most affected by violence," Valencia highlighted.

Since Duque headed office in 2018, at least 229 social leaders have been murdered, and 78 massacres have occurred in the Cauca department, in which the “Rastrojos,” Black Eagles, and Second Marquetalia paramilitary gangs operate.

“The only way to transform this heartbreaking reality is that the State promotes transformative long-term policies that include sustainable decisions,” Valencia considered.

“Although the signing of the 2016 peace agreement between the Colombian State and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) is a step forward in that sense, we must go further. On the contrary, our country will continue stained with blood," he concluded.