Source: HRW
A comprehensive and chilling report released yesterday by Human Rights Watch extensively details the resurgence of right-wing paramilitary groups in Colombia and the government’s failure to confront them. The report is getting traction in every major newspaper I’ve looked at this morning.
The premise of “Paramilitaries Heirs: The New Face of Violence in Colombia” is that the Colombian government’s attempt at demobilizing the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) from 2004-2007 was marred by fraud and cover-ups:
Almost immediately afterwards, new groups cropped up all over the country, taking the reins of the criminal operations that the AUC leadership previously ran. Today, these successor groups are engaging in frequent and serious abuses against civilians, including massacres, killings, forced displacement, rapes, threats, and extortion. They have repeatedly targeted human rights defenders, trade unionists, displaced persons, and community members who do not follow their orders. In some regions, like the city of Medellín, where the homicide rate has doubled in the past year, the groups’ operations have resulted in a large increase in violence.
The full 119-page report is full of detailed accounts of paramilitary activities, gathered over several years of field research:
For example, one human rights defender described how, while she was providing assistance to a victim of the AUC at the victim’s home, members of a successor group calling themselves the Black Eagles broke into the house, raped both women, and warned her to stop doing human rights work. “They told me it was forbidden for me to do that in the municipality. They didn’t want victims to know their rights or report abuses,” she told us.1 When she continued her work, they kidnapped her and said that if she did not leave town, they would go after her family. She sought help from local authorities, who dismissed her saying she should have known better than to do human rights work, and so she eventually fled and went into hiding.
In the report’s conclusions, HRW urges the U.S. government to delay ratifying a long-suffering free trade agreement with Colombia until the Colombian government effectively deals with the abuses of the paramilitaries. However, the Colombian government has so far responded with anger, even accusing HRW of meddling in this year’s presidential elections.
The full report can be accessed online here or downloaded in PDF format here. The shorter 26-page summary can be downloaded as a PDF here.
The Nation has a long, wonky, wonderful article on Mexican maize cultivation, the effects of NAFTA, and the dangers of genetically-modified seeds. Author Peter Canby backs up his excellent writing with piles and piles of meticulous research. Not to be missed. [
Hitmen have assassinated the PRI candidate for governor of Tamaulipas State, Rodolfo Torre Cantú. Torre was gunned down along with six others at about 10:30 this morning on a highway on the way to a campaign event. Drug mafias are assumed to be responsible. [
Colombia