Colombia Senator Concerned over Increasing Violence against Social Leaders

Colombian senator for the Polo Democrático, Iván Cepeda, sent a letter to President Iván Duque in which he urgently asks him to convene the National Commission for Security Guarantees in view of the increase in violence and murders against social leaders. 

In the letter disclosed on Monday in the official profile of the social network Twitter, Cepeda states that “the country is going through a deep security and violence crisis with profound humanitarian consequences,” for which he asks the Colombian president to convene the National Commission of Security Guarantees (CNGS) that, since October 21, 2020, has not met.

“This Commission, as you are aware, is responsible for designing, coordinating, formulating and evaluating policies for the dismantling of the successor organizations of paramilitarism and those that attack social leaders. In the face of the serious crisis facing the country, the inaction of your government translates into loss of human lives”, the senator emphasizes in the letter.

Every three days a massacre is committed, every 47 hours a social leader is murdered and every 6 days a former combatant is killed.  Displacements and confinements are increasing.

Cepeda points out that since Iván Duque assumed the presidency of Colombia, the CNGS has only met five times.  He further stresses that the request is made out of concern that the beginning of 2021 has been “the start of the most violent year since the signing of the Peace Accord.”  In this regard, he referred to the figures recorded by the Institute of Studies for Development and Peace (Indepaz). 

“According to Indepaz, in just the six weeks of 2021, there have been 22 murders of social leaders (one every 47 hours), seven homocides of ex-combatants of the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People’s Army (one every six days) and 12 massacres (one every three and a half days),” explains Cepeda’s letter. 

“Added to this scenario are the massive confinements and displacements of numerous communities,” adds the text, which warns that in 2020 there were 1,535 displacements and 4,661 confinements.  “To date, more than 800 people have been displaced and another 500, approximately, are at risk of displacement.  This is a worrying figure after only six weeks of the year,” he adds.