The Defense Ministry agrees to transfer 100 billion pesos (about US$30 million) from planned weapons purchases to pandemic public health needs. The idea was first proposed by opposition Senator Iván Cepeda.
April 20, 2020
Author: Adam Isacson
Emilse – Women Seeding Peace
Published by One Earth Future on April 20, 2020.
Emilse, from Caquetá, tells how after eradicating her coca plants, she joined with several neighbors to grow food and develop productive animal breeding projects.
April 20, 2020
Diálogos en Cuarentena: Búsqueda de Desaparecidos
Publicado por CINEP el 20 de abril de 2020.
An update on the post-conflict effort to search for disappeared persons, with Christoph Harnisch (Colombia chief, International Committee of the Red Cross), Luz Marina Monzón (Director, Unit for the Search for Disappeared Persons), and Lucía Osorno (Movement of Victims of State Crimes), moderated by Ginna Morelo (El Tiempo).
April 20, 2020
Memoria de un Colectivo: Colectivo de Mujeres Víctimas Restableciendo Derechos
Publicado por la Corporación Sisma Mujer el 20 de abril de 2020.
A meeting of a collective of women, victims of the conflict in Tolima and Valle del Cauca, to rebuild memory and build solidarity.
April 20, 2020
Cese al fuego unilateral del ELN: Implicaciones y oportunidades
Publicado por Rodeemos el Diálogo el 20 de abril de 2020.
A conversation about the ELN ceasefire and potential for peace talks, with experts Annette Idler, Kristian Herzbolheimer, Angelica Rettberg, Carlos Velandia, Luis Eduardo Celis, Juan Carlos Garzón, Steve Hege, and moderator Andreí Gómez-Suárez.
April 20, 2020
Militarización, Paramilitarización y Negación al Amparo del Estado de Emergencia Económica y Social
Publicado por la Coordinación Colombia-Europa-Estados Unidos el 20 de abril de 2020.
An update on the human rights situation amid Colombia’s COVID-19 state of emergency.
April 20, 2020
Edwin Dagua Ipia, el Guardián del Resguardo Huellas
Publicado por Verdad Abierta el 20 de abril de 2020.
The story of an indigenous leader killed in northern Cauca in 2018, and the legacy of his work with the Indigenous Guard.
April 20, 2020
José Adalberto Torijano, un Luchador por los Derechos del Campesinado
Publicado por Verdad Abierta el 20 de abril de 2020.
Profile of a Cauca campesino leader killed by the Army in 2017, and his effort to establish a Campesino Guard and reserve zones for small landholders.
April 20, 2020
Siete proposiciones que demuestran porqué los Planes de Desarrollo con Enfoque Territorial – PDET del Gobierno no son los PDET concebidos en el Acuerdo de paz
Publicado por el Centro de Pensamiento y Diálogo Político el 18 de abril de 2020.
A report from a think tank affiliated with the FARC political party alleges that the Territorially Focused Development Programs (PDET) are departing from the vision foreseen in the peace accords’ first chapter.
April 18, 2020
April 18, 2020
Demobilized combatants participate in volunteer food distribution during the coronavirus lockdown in Cali.
April 18, 2020
Chocó, entre la pobreza y el coronavirus
Publicado por Semana el 18 de abril de 2020.
Alarms are sounding in Colombia’s poorest department about the arrival of coronavirus.
April 18, 2020
Letter dated 16 April 2020 from the President of the Security Council addressed to the Secretary-General and the Permanent Representatives of the members of the Security Council
Published by the UN Security Council on April 17, 2020.
Record of the Security Council’s meeting to review the March 26, 2020 report of the UN Verification Mission in Colombia. (Link at undocs.org)
April 17, 2020
¿El COVID-19 pone en riesgo los cuerpos que están desaparecidos en cementerios?
Publicado por El Espectador el 17 de abril de 2020.
Concerns that burials of coronavirus victims may affect the identification and preservation of remains of people disappeared during the conflict.
April 17, 2020
SOS en cárceles por la pandemia en Colombia Villavicencio en alerta
Publicado por Semana el 17 de abril de 2020.
Growing concerns about the spread of coronavirus in Colombia’s prison system.
April 17, 2020
Pablo Beltrán, comandante del ELN, habla sobre posible diálogo con el Gobierno
Publicado por El Espectador el 16 de abril de 2020.
Interview with ELN commander Pablo Beltrán, who was the group’s chief negotiator in Havana, Cuba, about possibilities for renewed peace talks.
April 16, 2020
April 16, 2020
Defense Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo says that the government is forging ahead in the fulfillment of Constitutional Court-mandated requirements for the re-starting of aerial herbicide fumigation in coca-growing zones.
April 16, 2020
April 16, 2020
From Cuba, ELN leader Pablo Beltrán insists that the guerrillas remain willing to re-start negotiations, and have enough “internal cohesion” to sustain talks. Beltrán had led the ELN’s negotiating team until talks collapsed in January 2019.
April 16, 2020
Las nuevas rutas del narcotráfico
Publicado por Semana el 16 de abril de 2020.
A look at the U.S. military deployment to international waters near Colombia to interdict drugs, the current state of the drug trade, and U.S. pressure on the Venezuelan regime.
April 16, 2020
Comisión de la Verdad avanza en el procesamiento de más de 15 mil testimonios en la cuarentena
Publicado por El Espectador el 16 de abril de 2020.
An interview with Truth Commission member Alejandra Miller about how the Commission is working during the coronavirus lockdown.
April 16, 2020
Podcast: Democracy, Displacement, and “Political Cleansing” in Colombia’s Armed Conflict
Abbey Steele of the University of Amsterdam’s Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences is a scholar of violence and politics who has done most of her work in Colombia. She is the author of Democracy and Displacement in Colombia’s Civil War (2017, Cornell University Press).
In this episode, she discusses her work in Apartadó, in Colombia’s Urabá region, which saw forced displacement by paramilitary groups intensify after Colombia began direct local elections and leftist parties performed well. She calls what happened “political cleansing” or “collective targeting”: the paramilitaries targeted entire communities for displacement based on election results.
Steele explains this and other findings, particularly how communities have organized to resist the onslaught. She has a sharp analysis of the challenges that continue for the displaced—and for communities and social leaders at risk of political cleansing—today, in post-peace-accord Colombia.
Listen above, or download the .mp3 file.
April 16, 2020
April 15, 2020
The Prosecutor-General’s Office (Fiscalía) and Ministry of Justice submit an extradition request to the United States for Salvatore Mancuso, the former maximum leader of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) paramilitary group. The government of Álvaro Uribe extradited Mancuso and 13 other paramilitary leaders to the United States to face drug-trafficking charges in 2008; Mancuso is about to complete his U.S. sentence.
April 15, 2020
April 15, 2020
Eight members of the “Carlos Patiño Front” FARC dissident group are reported dead in Argelia, Cauca, following combat with the Army.
April 15, 2020
April 15, 2020
Citing the COVID-19 pandemic, Justice Minister Margarita Cabello announces that about 4,000 prisoners will be released from the nation’s prisons in order to practice social distancing under house arrest.
April 15, 2020
Implementación del Acuerdo de Paz en tiempos de pandemia
Publicado por CINEP el 15 de abril de 2020.
A conversation about how to implement peace accord commitments amid the COVID-19 crisis, with Emilio Archila (Presidential Advisor for Stabilization and Consolidation); Ricardo Téllez / Rodrigo Granda (FARC), and Consuelo Corredor (CINEP).
April 15, 2020
Monitor del cese el fuego unilateral del ELN
Publicado por CERAC el 15 de abril de 2020.
The Bogotá think tank, which maintains a database of conflict events, finds that the ELN did not violate its declared ceasefire during the first 15 days of April.
April 15, 2020