2010 most violent year since paramilitary demobilization: Report

2010 most violent year since paramilitary demobilization: Report
Thursday, 09 December 2010 15:29 Hannah Stone

Colombian investigative website Verdad Abierta says that 2010 is the most violent year since the demobilization of the paramilitaries in 2006, due to the rise of emerging criminal groups.

Summarizing information released by NGOs Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Indepaz, and the government's National Commission for Reparation and Reconciliation (CNRR), as well as from police sources, Verdad Abierta analyses the emerging criminal groups. Massacres are up 25% to 153 cases so far in 2010, and murders are up 16%, according to the website. Estimates on the number of members in these groups range from 2,200, according to government security agency DAS, to 10,200, according to HRW.

Verdad Abierta lists a number of "similarities" between the criminal groups and the officially demobilized paramilitaries, as noted in CNRR report; that the groups use the same tactics, committing massacres, carrying out forced disappearances, and targetting community leaders and displaced people.

Another similarity, according to the CNRR, is that the emerging criminal groups are funded through similar ventures to the paramilitaries, specifically narco-trafficking, extortion, gambling, and currency exchange offices. The groups also have branches and interests that reach across the country and sometimes internationally. Many members of the groups were in paramilitaries, some of whom failed to demobilize and some of whom returned to crime after demobilizing.

More:
http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/13345-new-criminal-groups-make-2010-most-violent-year-since-demobilization-report.html