Terror in Iván Duque’s Colombia: 45 massacres in eight months
The data made public indicates that since January 1, 45 massacres have been perpetrated, with a tragic toll of 182 murdered. The study was based on analysis of departmental news and public reports
The regime of Iván Duque seems to imitate that of his mentor Álvaro Uribe (2002–2010) in terms of the deplorable figures of its controversial “collective homicides”, a qualifier to try to soften a crime that in real and concrete terms constitutes massacres. Throughout the Colombian territory, the main victims of the massacres are opposition political leaders, social activists, environmentalists, indigenous and community leaders, peasants and ex-combatants or ex-guerrillas.
The numbers do not lie with respect to the harsh reality that hits Colombia regarding the violence unleashed. Everyday the numbers of murders, hit men, kidnappings, torture, disappearances, extortion, among other crimes, increase. And these ‘numbers’ have as main executors the army forces, paramilitary groups (far right) and drug trafficking networks that act under the protection of the State and the US troops living in the military bases installed in that country.
The Observatory of Conflicts, Peace and Human Rights of the Institute of Studies for Development and Peace (Indepaz), published a report this August 24, that collects the number of Massacres, so far, in Colombia in 2020. The report collects all the data up to August 23, 2020.
The data made public indicates that since January 1, 45 massacres have been perpetrated, with a tragic toll of 182 murdered. The study was based on analysis of departmental news and public reports and from social organizations and platforms of Human Rights defenders. They also considered reports from official entities such as the Ombudsman’s Office, the Ministry of Defense, the Attorney General’s Office, the Police, the Navy and the Army; in addition to the media and Non-Governmental Organizations.
The most recent massacre was an armed attack on a house in the Venecia municipality, Antioquia department, on the afternoon of Sunday, August 23. Three people were killed at the scene, including a 17-year-old adolescent, and -there is at least- one more injured person.
The act of violence was perpetrated in the Los Álamos neighborhood. This was the fourth massacre that occurred during that weekend, since last Friday there were two violent events in Arauca, and in Cauca; and on Saturday in Nariño.
On Friday there was a massacre in the village of El Caracol, Arauca municipality. The Ombudsman’s Office reported the ‘multiple crime’ against five people. Later it was learned that another massacre was carried out in a remote rural area of the troubled department of Cauca, where six people were killed. The events occurred in the rural area of La Uribe, a district of the municipality of El Tambo.
Then, on Saturday, a new ‘multiple murder’ was made public against six young people in the La Guayacana sector, in Tumaco, Nariño.
The massacres are “collective homicides” for Duque
In the midst of this situation, the families that have been victims of the massacres demand that the president, Iván Duque, speak truthfully of the reality that Colombia is suffering and that he does not disguise it with qualifications that do not represent the brutality of the events.
In his statements, Duque refers to the massacres as “collective homicides”, something that the victims consider an offensive perception and that seeks to hide the reality.
In this regard, Álvaro Caicedo, father of one of the minors killed in the Llano Verde massacre, in the Sultana del Valle, complained to Duque for not speaking clearly and not helping to clarify the massacres.
“This was a massacre, this was not a ‘collective homicide’, it was a massacre that was committed against our children. Come and collaborate so that there is truth and justice”, said this father who rejected the term “collective homicides”.
Caicedo also sent a message to President Duque: “He should face the situation head on. Do not come to make fun of our pain”, quotes the Colombian media Blu Radio.
While those families continue to demand justice, the National Victims’ Roundtable described Duque’s statements as “absurd” and affirmed that when this type of analysis comes to the fore, the responsibility of the State in those crimes by action or omission is evidenced.
“Either he really doesn’t know where he is standing or he doesn’t understand anything about the conflict that this country is going through. It would be very good for the entire Democratic Center and its caucus to study what we are experiencing, the entire political context, because they only say atrocities that not even the most ignorant understand”, said Rosario Montoya, a member of the National Victims’ Roundtable.
In addition, she added that “the massacres, although it is true they had not been completely eradicated, they did decrease and brought a bit of calm in this country. But now the massacres are returning as if the same strategy of the past were returning”.
But, this was not the only controversy in which President Duque was in the midst of the disturbance of public order that the country experienced, because a shower of criticism also fell on the president when he compared the massacres that occurred in the two years of his government with the 8 years of his predecessor, Juan Manuel Santos, but without mentioning the bloody events of the era of his mentor Álvaro Uribe.
Duque says homicides are “on the decline”
Despite the hundreds of complaints generated by the indiscriminate murder of social leaders and the execution of massacres throughout the country, Duque insists that the figures have decreased and that the blame for these violent acts are of the irregular groups that oppose Uribism.
“We closed 2019 with one of the three lowest homicide rates in the last forty years (…) this trend shows that we continue to decline and we have to persevere. Of course, there are events that hit the perception of security”, Duque said in recent statements, just after two massacres in a row on August 16.
“For many it did not go unnoticed that the head of State responded in a public intervention, after two massacres (five children had also been murdered in Cali), with a balance of figures”, wrote Germán Gómez Polo for the Colombian newspaper El Espectador.
In addition, a tweet that he published recently and in which he compared figures of massacres of the eight years of the Santos government with his two, unleashed anger on Twitter, a discussion that grew even greater when, in similar speeches, Duque and Carlos Holmes Trujillo, Defense Minister, agreed in saying that the massacres were not new, but came from years ago.
“The government’s discourse has remained in this line after the recent massacres. And although there are elements of truth in what Duque and his minister have said, there are questions about whether to provide figures, put a rear-view mirror on the Peace Agreement or call the massacres ‘collective homicides’, because that is the ‘precise name’ (massacres), it’s what victims need to hear”, adds Gómez Polo.
“The answer has been wrong. There is evidence of a certain disconnection and lack of empathy, but what is really worrying is that there seems to be no other answer”, says Iván Garzón, a professor at the University of La Sabana, who considers that, beyond solidarity, the public expects that the President guarantees security and State presence, as part of an effective response. “What is the strategy to face this escalation of violence in the country?”, asks Garzón, quoted by El Espectador.
Patricia Muñoz, director of the Government program at the Javeriana University, considers that Duque goes to familiar situations to explain the acts of violence, but he also encounters a sector of the population that inquires about why the demand for the implementation of the Peace Agreement is not present, which has a component of social investment and economic alternatives, and formation for citizens. “We cannot say that these events begin with this government, but there are some commitments that the State acquired through the signing of the Agreement”, recalls Muñoz.
On this matter, Jorge Restrepo, director of the Resource Center for Conflict Analysis (CERAC), considers that the debate should not focus on speeches, but on demanding effectiveness in investigations. “Another problem is whether the government succeeds in its role. Its responsibility is not to have a policy that prevents massacres”, he said.
Gómez Polo adds in his article that the figures, rather than to scandalize, should be to humanize what happens in Colombia and what its citizens suffer. “As Humberto de la Calle said in his column on Sunday in El Espectador: “The statistics cover the horror. Thirty-three massacres in recent months show that the issue is not one of numbers”.
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