Recent Violence in Colombia
Since 2008, Colombia's security forces claim to have killed 7 of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla group's top 14 commanders. The group's membership, estimated at over 18,000 by 2002, is now approximately 8,000. With the killing of Jorge Briceño, alias "Mono Jojoy," FARC's top military leader, Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos announced that it was "the beginning of the end" for the already weakened insurgency. However, the FARC persists, while Colombia continues to face violence from groups descended from pro-government paramilitary militias like Los Rastrojos, the Black Eagles, and others linked to drug trafficking. On October 2nd, the town of Santa Barbara in the southwestern province of Nariño experienced the toll of such urban violence when David Creo, an ex-town councilor, and his family of 4 were killed in their home. Colombia's national ombudsman, Volmar Pérez, reported that the massacre was carried out by 20 armed, unidentified paramilitaries. The murder of Creo and his family forced 83 peasants to seek refuge in the neighboring village of La Soledad. Pérez explained that paramilitary forces and groups working in the "service of drug trafficking" are engaged in disputes over territorial and social control, and added that "comprehensive and effective measures of prevention and protection to guarantee the right to life and (physical) integrity for the civilian population" must be adopted. In response, on October 4th, President Santos announced that the National Police force would grow by another 20,000 members over the next four years to help fight violence in the nation's urban centers. Furthermore, he promised 300 billion pesos (about US$150 million) towards initiatives to help prevent youth violence, explaining that "public security cannot come independent of democratic security, but is a necessary compliment to ensure...the tranquility of all citizens." Violence in Colombia has not only been limited to paramilitary activity. On October 11th, a Colombian court found seven members of an elite Colombian military unit guilty of killing a civilian and claiming he was a leftist rebel killed in combat in 2007. This verdict was reached after the October 7th arrest of Colombian Army Major Orlando Arturo Céspedes Escalona, who was arrested for his alleged role in eleven "false positive" murders. The term refers to a mid-2000s epidemic of civilians killed by the military, with their bodies later presented as those of armed groups killed in combat in order to reap rewards. According to some estimates, the Colombian military may be responsible for as many as 3,000 of such murders. This post was written by CIP intern Johannes Schmidt