Report after report confirms Colombia’s paramilitaries continued after AUC

Report after report confirms Colombia’s paramilitaries continued after AUC

written by Stephen Gill April 25, 2016

Colombia security is severely under threat at the hands of illegal paramilitary groups, according to a report published last week by conflict monitoring NGO Indepaz. The report revealed that in the first quarter of 2016, there were 14 paramilitary groups in operation in 146 of 1,100 municipalities in 22 of 32 provinces in Colombia.

The Indepaz report confirms an Inspector General report released last week, which also claimed that paramilitary groups are alive and well, in spite the government denying their existence.
These groups are said to be involved in a variety of activities that are destabilizing the security situation in the South American country.

These illegal activities include drug-trafficking, smuggling, illegal mining, extortion, targeted assassinations and corruption involving public representatives.

“It is worrying that despite being so close to a peace process with the FARC, the presence of these paramilitary structures have invaded Colombian territory with effective threats perpetrated against human rights defenders, land claimants and communities in general,” said the coordinator of the Research Unit of Indepaz, Leonardo Gonzalez.

More:
http://colombiareports.com/big-colombias-paramilitary-threat/