Violence
With President Juan Manuel Santos’ presidency coming close to its first 100 days, violence continues in Colombia. On October 21st, the Interdisciplinary Group for Human Rights presented the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights with a 21-page document titled “Words and Deeds,” which highlighted the violence against human rights activists that has surrounded Santos’ first 75 days in office.
On October 7th, Mexico's President Felipe Calderón called Tijuana a "clear example" that his four-year-long security strategy against drug cartels in Mexico has a solution. "Tijuana went from being a city seized by terror and focused only on questions of crime to a city motivated by hope and focused on being competitive," Calderón said.
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.
Institutional impunity, human rights violations, and terror continue to fuel Mexico’s weakening security environment. Among the latest pieces of news related to violence in Mexico and drug trafficking:
The Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) and the Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez Human Rights Center (Center Prodh) released a new report today on human rights violations in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
Public security in Mexico has deteriorated to the point at which, on Sept. 19, the El Diario de Juárez newspaper published a front-page editorial calling out to drug traffickers for guidance in reporting. Titling it “What do you want from us?” El Diario printed the editorial amid increased violence against journalists. To see an English translation of the editorial,
While there continues to be conflict-related violence throughout Colombia, much of the recent violence seems to be concentrated in the country's urban centers, most notably in Bogotá and Medellín. In both of these urban centers murder rates and gun violence attributed to emerging criminal groups, the apparent successors to the disbanded AUC paramilitary structure, have continued to surge.
A big white teddy bear sat on top of one of the little coffin boxes, and red roses on the other three. The remains of the four sisters were finally being returned to their mother, Blanca Nieves Meneses.
Much recent violence was concentrated in the Antioquia department in northwestern Colombia. There, in one six-day period, nineteen people were killed in three separate attacks.
Much of the violence last week was related to the Sunday June 20th presidential election in which former defense minister Juan Manuel Santos beat two-time Bogota mayor Antanas Mockus in a landslide victory.