Venezuela Pressures UN to Take Action Over Massacres in Colombia

Venezuela has advised the UN to protect Colombians and to take action regarding the growing wave of assassinations and massacres which have taken place in the country.

In a statement released this Monday on his Twitter account, the foreign minister of Venezuela, Félix Plasencia, urged the general secretary of the United Nations (UN), António Guterres, to take steps towards protecting the Colombian people from the extremely high rates of violence that have been registered in Colombia.

“We urge the general secretary of the UN to take action, through the apparatus of the United Nations and its related agencies, to protect our brothers and sisters in Colombia from the institutionalized violence that is sanctioned by the lawlessness of the [Iván] Duque government,” Plasencia remarked via Twitter.

Similarly, he mourned the fact that by January 10, 2022, ten massacres has already been perpetrated in Colombia, a situation which, he has warned, is due to institutionalized violence.

He has also alerted that, if the situation continues, 2022 will be the bloodiest year in recent history for Colombia. “That is saying a lot, especially when one considers the humanitarian crisis which occurred in 2021,” Placencia added. “We cannot stay silent any longer.”

Plasencia’s statement was made after the Institute for Development and Peace Studies (INDEPAZ) informed the public about the assassinations of three young individuals in the department of Nariño, a tragedy that marked the fourth massacre in Colombia in 2022.

Several other human rights organizations have similarly condemned the killings in Colombia, and have emphasized the need to comply with the peace agreements in order to combat violence in the country and strengthen the protection of vulnerable groups.

Featured image: Colombians protest the massacres which have gripped the country. Photo: HispanTV

(HispanTV)

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

OT/KW/DD