Skip to content
June 30, 2022
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Reddit
  • Telegram
  • TikTok
  • LinkedIn
Orinoco Tribune – News and opinion pieces about Venezuela and beyond

Orinoco Tribune – News and opinion pieces about Venezuela and beyond

From Venezuela and made by Venezuelan Chavistas

Primary Menu
  • News
  • Opinion
  • About us
    • About us
    • Who we are – Becoming a Volunteer
    • Editorial guidelines for contributors
    • Our Sources
      • Venezuelan Sources
      • International Sources
    • Contact us
  • Categories
    • Politics
    • Economy
    • Security and Defense
    • International
      • Africa
      • Asia
      • Europe
      • Oceania
      • US/Canada
    • Latin America and ALBA-TCP
      • South America
      • Central America and the Caribbean (+Mexico)
    • Ideology-Commune-Labor
    • Health-Education-Sport-Culture-Technology
    • Solidarity and Social Movements
    • OT Originals
  • Support Us
    • Tax Deductible Donations: AfGJ Fiscal Sponsorship Program
    • Patreon (recurrent donations)
    • PayPal and Credit Cards
Light/Dark Button
YouTube Channel
  • Home
  • News
  • Duque’s Misrule: Colombia in ‘Perfect Storm,’ Heading Towards ‘a River of Blood’
  • Latin America and ALBA-TCP
  • News
  • South America

Duque’s Misrule: Colombia in ‘Perfect Storm,’ Heading Towards ‘a River of Blood’

February 9, 2021

January 27, 2021.- The apparent misrule of Colombia’s President Ivan Duque has further escalated violence, according to the war crimes tribunal, and created the “perfect storm” for “a river of blood,” a conflict analyst said Tuesday.

The Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) issued an alert in which it said to have registered 14 combat situations, 14 assassinations of and 13 death threats against human rights defenders or community leaders, six massacres and the assassination of five demobilized FARC guerrillas.

The report was released hours after the death of Defense Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo, whose 2019 appointment was succeeded by a surge in massacres and the persistent assassinations of social leaders and former rebels taking part in the peace process.

According to the JEP, the beginning of this year again saw a rise in massacres. One social leader is allegedly assassinated every 41 hours and every five days a former FARC guerrilla suffers the same fate.

RELATED CONTENT: CIA and Colombia Behind Mercenary Bombing Attempt On Venezuelan National Assembly

• Massacre | • Assassinated social leader | • Assassinated former guerrillas

Duque’s security policy invisible for HRW

According to human rights NGO Human Rights Watch, the government has not just failed to implement the 2016 peace deal with the FARC, but doesn’t seem to have a policy to offer protection to social leaders and journalists.

The government’s apparently ongoing failure to host the National Committee for Security Guarantees, which seeks to dismantle paramilitary groups associated with Duque’s far-right Democratic Center party, would be in blatant non-compliance of the peace deal.

This further puts demobilized guerrillas, social leaders and journalists at increased risk of violence after Duque’s three years of neglect to dismantle the paramilitaries and failure to combat FARC dissident groups deteriorated the security situation for social leaders.

Ongoing violations of the freedom of the press has deteriorated the situation for journalists to the worst point since the foundation of press freedom foundation FLIP, the organization said last year.

“Human rights defenders, journalists, indigenous leaders, Afro-Colombian and other community activists face widespread death threats and violence. The government has not taken sufficient measures to protect them.

HRW Americas chief Jose Miguel Vivanco

RELATED CONTENT: Colombia: UN Security Council Backs Peace

Confirmed HRW claims “insulting”

The president’s post-conflict adviser, Amilio Archila, told government-friendly radio station RCN that the HRW report is “insulting” and insisted the government is implementing the peace deal, which it isn’t.

To further undermine whatever is left of Archila’s credibility, conflict analyst Ariel Avila of think tank Paz y Reconciliation confirmed HRW’s claims and said Duque’s security policy has mainly been for show.

The president’s apparent misrule since taking office in August 2018 has deteriorated the security situation to a point that “we are in a perfect storm” a year before general elections, according to Avila.

  1. Illegal economies exploded; the price of cocaine paste is at $3,000, the price of gold is also up.
  2. we are in a criminal technical tie; no actor beats the other, and this leads to a degradation of violence.
  3. there is an absence of security policy. These years have passed and the Government has not understood what a security policy means in the midst of the post-conflict. All this in the middle of 2021 which is a pre-electoral year, and pre-electoral years tend to be very violent in Colombia.

Conflict analyst Ariel Avila

Duque’s reluctance to dismantle paramilitaries

Duque has not just neglected to implement a 2016 peace deal with the FARC and to formulate public policies to dismantle paramilitary groups, but appears to believe that organizing press conference to improve his abysmal approval rating is a security policy, according to Avila, who expects “a river of blood.”

“President Duque chose to pursue high-value objectives, the Bubble Plan, take one from one criminal group, take another from another, hold press conferences, kill people and with that believe he will reach the end of the year with some popularity, but that doesn’t solve the crime problems Colombia has as we have announced. It seems that this 2021 is going to be full of blood.

Conflict analyst Ariel Avila

Neither the JEP, nor HRW, nor Avila had taken the death of the defense minister into account when drawing the eerily similar conclusions that the apparent misrule of Duque, who was elected with mafia support, is sinking the country into violent chaos.

 

Featured image: File Photo

(Colombia Reports)

Want More?

Don't want to be a victim of the Algorithm?

SIGN UP TO RECEIVE OUR WEEKLY NEWSLETTER WITH ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT VENEZUELA

We don’t spam! Read our privacy policy for more info.

Editor2
+ posts
  • Editor2
    https://orinocotribune.com/author/yullma/
    Japan urged to scrap law forcing transgender people to be sterilised before they can transition
  • Editor2
    https://orinocotribune.com/author/yullma/
    South Africa: Parliament Votes in Favor of Land Expropriation Without Compensation
  • Editor2
    https://orinocotribune.com/author/yullma/
    Haiti suspends fuel price hike after deadly protests
  • Editor2
    https://orinocotribune.com/author/yullma/
    US only country in the world to vote against work of UN refugee agency
Tags: armed conflict Colomba peace process political violence public security

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

Continue Reading

Previous Previous post:

Yemenis not to be Fooled by US Words on Ending Support for Saudi war: Houthi

Next Next post:

US Report Recognizes Impact of Sanctions on Venezuela’s Economy and Human Rights

GAO reports economic and human rights of US blockade and sanctions on Venezuela

Tax deductible donations

One time donations

Recurrent donations

Calendar

June 2022
M T W T F S S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
27282930  
« May    

NEWS: Most Viewed 72 Hours

Categories

Subscribe to Our Weekly Newsletter

We keep your data private and share your data only with third parties that make this service possible. Read our Privacy Policy.

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

OPINION: Most Viewed 72 hours

We are on Telegram


Receive our news directly in your cellphone or PC, join us on our TELEGRAM channel: https://t.me/OrinocoTribune1

Download TELEGRAM, click the link above and then press the JOIN button.

We are Copyleft not Copyright


Creative Commons License
All Orinoco Tribune's work is free to use and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

We are on Reddit


If you are more into REDDIT, join our Orinoco Tribune Community.
Just click below and then click JOIN
https://www.reddit.com/r/OrinocoTribune/

 

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Reddit
  • Telegram
  • TikTok
  • LinkedIn
Copyleft, No rights reserved.

Orinoco Tribune needs your help  

This week we have to pay our monthly hostings fees but we are out of funds

If for some reason you see us down this week, that is the reason. 

We will try to resume payments as soon as we can!

Orinoco Tribune needs more support!

3 options below: