Political violence targeting Colombia’s human rights workers on the rise: Report

Source: Colombia Reports

Political violence targeting Colombia’s human rights workers on the rise: Report

written by Thomas Graham April 25, 2016

Colombia has not been any safer in 35 years — unless you work with human rights, because threats and murders targeting rights workers increased in the South American country.

Not long ago, and with some fanfare, the Colombian government announced that 2015 was the least intense year in the armed conflict of 50 years and had registered the lowest number homicide rate in decades.

However, another form of violence has quietly risen instead: political violence against the unarmed, including political and social leaders and human rights activists.

. . .

This new generation of paramilitary groups, in some cases in conjunction with corrupt elements in the military, is according to the government itself, Colombia’s primary human rights violator.

Read more: http://colombiareports.com/death-threats-murders-human-rights-activists-rise/