Colombia

Almost five years after Colombia’s former FARC guerrillas signed peace with the government, 46% of them are still waiting for work, according to the United Nations. In a press release, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres urged the government of President Ivan Duque to accelerate the process that seeks to reintegrate 13,608 former guerrillas.

Colombia’s 2016 peace deal was lauded for bringing to an end the longest-running war in the Americas. But five years on, aggressive counter-narcotics tactics and unkept government pledges are blamed for fuelling distrust in rural areas and driving a new cycle of violence.

Colombia’s former President Alvaro Uribe on Monday testified before the Truth Commission about war crimes committed when the far-right politician was head of state.

[…] The mass displacement would be the consequence of renewed violence between rearmed guerrillas of the now-defunct rebel group FARC and paramilitaries of paramilitary group AGC.

Carlos Ruiz Massieu, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the UN Verification Mission in Colombia, briefed ambassadors on latest developments under the accord that ended five decades of fighting between the Government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC-EP). 

The Colombian government used “excessive and disproportionate” force during mass protests earlier this year, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) said in a long-awaited report released on Wednesday.

In Colombia’s history of protest, the 2021 mobilisations against inequality and police brutality stand out for their breadth and intensity. Unrest has quieted for now but could soon return. The government should urgently reform the security sector while working to narrow the country’s socio-economic chasms.

Colombian protest leaders on Tuesday said their organizations would suspend anti-government demonstrations which have caused political and economic upheaval during the last six weeks, but warned their fight for solutions to a range of social and economic demands would continue.

Human Rights Watch said 20 protesters have died at the hands of Colombian police in what were "not isolated incidents by rogue officers, but rather the result of systemic shortcomings."