Published by WOLA on March 31, 2021
WOLA’s latest urgent update on the situation of human rights defenders and social leaders in Colombia.
April 6, 2021
Concerning Human Rights Violations and Humanitarian Situation in Colombia
Tag: Paramilitarism
Insecurity Rising in Ethnic Communities Throughout Colombia
Published by WOLA on February 28, 2021
WOLA’s latest urgent update on the situation of human rights defenders and social leaders in Colombia.
February 28, 2021
Una máquina paramilitar intimida a Santa Marta
Publicado por La Liga Contra el Silencio el 3 de diciembre de 2020.
Warnings of security deterioration in the Caribbean city due to the presence of criminal groups that can trace their heritage back to the old AUC paramilitaries.
December 3, 2020
En la JEP: las revelaciones de Blanco Maya sobre carboneras y paramilitares en Cesar
Publicado por El Espectador el 23 de noviembre de 2020.
Revelations in the transitional justice system about links between paramilitary groups and coal mining companies in northeastern Colombia.
November 23, 2020
US-Opposed Probe of Colombia’s Uribe Is Essential Step in Road to Peace
Published by Just Security on November 18, 2020.
The authors find that accountability over the ex-president’s human rights record is important for peace, and urge U.S. support for it.
November 18, 2020
La masacre de cinco indígenas y campesinos de la que algunos no quieren que se hable en Sucre
Publicado por Vorágine el 8 de noviembre de 2020.
An account of a paramilitary massacre in an indigenous community in San Marcos, Sucre.
November 8, 2020
Las contradicciones de Salvatore Mancuso ante la Comisión de la Verdad
Publicado por Verdad Abierta el 25 de octubre de 2020.
The former top paramilitary figure, facing extradition back to Colombia from the United States, changed his story about the 2001 murder of an indigenous leader.
October 25, 2020
El expediente secreto de un exagente de la CIA en Colombia
Publicado por El Espectador el 27 de septiembre de 2020.
Profile of a former CIA agent who served as head of security for Drummond, a U.S. coal company accused of working with paramilitaries.
September 27, 2020
Aportes y omisiones a la verdad de los jefes paramilitares extraditados a Estados Unidos
Publicado por Razón Pública el 21 de septiembre de 2020.
Profiles of some former AUC paramilitary leaders and the crimes they still need to clarify or confess.
September 21, 2020
Negación de nexos de Fuerza Pública con paramilitares: “farsa que no vale ni una moneda de cinco centavos”
Publicado por Verdad Abierta el 2 de septiembre de 2020.
Recently declassified U.S. government documents from the 1990s attest to the Colombian military’s low morale and collaboration with paramilitary groups.
September 2, 2020
August 30, 2020
U.S. authorities decide to deport Salvatore Mancuso, the former maximum head of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) paramilitary confederation, back to Colombia. Then-president Álvaro Uribe extradited Mancuso and 13 other AUC leaders to the United States in 2008. Mancuso completed his U.S. prison sentence for drug trafficking in January, and has been in ICE immigration custody pending deportation since then.
The decision to deport to Colombia reverses an earlier U.S. intention to deport Mancuso to Italy, as the former paramilitary, a dual citizen of both countries, had requested. Mancuso immediately appeals to remain in the United States under the Convention Against Torture, claiming a fear for his safety if returned to Colombia.
Colombian government errors in requesting the extradition spur speculation in some quarters that the Duque government is reluctant to see Mancuso back in Colombia, where he might further reveal past cooperation between political elites and paramilitaries. Mancuso remains detained in ICE’s detention center in Irwin county, Georgia.
August 30, 2020
El Aro: ¿Qué tiene que ver Álvaro Uribe Vélez?
Publicado por Semana el 29 de agosto de 2020.
A rundown of the 1997 paramilitary massacre in Antioquia that, some allege, received support from the office of then-governor Álvaro Uribe.
August 29, 2020
Los Mattos: retrato de una familia para enmarcar
Profile of brothers from an elite family in Cesar, an emblematic case of land concentration and support for paramilitarism.
August 26, 2020
The Friends of “El Viejo”: Declassified Records Detail Suspected Paramilitary, Narco Ties of Former Colombian President Uribe
Published by the National Security Archive on August 31, 2020.
A trove of declassified U.S. documents raises questions about ex-president Álvaro Uribe’s possible ties to paramilitaries and narcotraffickers.
August 1, 2020
La madre que perdonó a quienes desaparecieron a su hijo
Publicado por El Espectador Colombia 2020 el 1 de agosto de 2020.
Gladys Vargas forgives paramilitary leader “El Iguano” for the murder of her son.
August 1, 2020
La lucha de los campesinos de la hacienda Bellacruz llega a la Comisión de la Verdad
Publicado por El Espectador Colombia 2020 el 29 de julio de 2020.
The Comité de Solidaridad con los Presos Políticos delivers to the Truth Commission a report about a long-running case of forced displacement in Cesar.
July 29, 2020
Operación Orión y masacre de El Aro: ¿Cuál fue el papel del ex presidente Uribe?
Publicado por Semana el 28 de julio de 2020.
Examines the alleged responsibility of ex-president Álvaro Uribe and the armed forces for serious human rights abuses in Antioquia.
July 28, 2020
Fiesta de sangre: la masacre de El Salado que hoy quiere esclarecer la JEP
Publicado por Semana el 26 de julio de 2020.
The transitional justice system has moved forward on its investigation of one of the worst massacres in the history of the conflict, the 2000 paramilitary attack on the people of El Salado, Bolivar.
July 26, 2020
July 18, 2020
The Rastrojos, a remnant of what had been a larger post-AUC paramilitary group, massacres seven people in rural Tibú, Norte de Santander. The attack displaces 400 people. Meanwhile an armed group’s explosive on the roadside between Cúcuta and Tibú kills two soldiers and wounds eight more. The violence highlights a worsening conflict between the Rastrojos and the ELN for control of border crossings between Colombia (Tibú, Puerto Santander, and Cúcuta municipalities) and Venezuela.
July 18, 2020
Informe: El silencio de las gaitas
Publicado por la Comisión Colombiana de Juristas el 9 de julio de 2020.
Presentation of a report about paramilitary massacres in the Montes de María region in 2000 and 2001, and the military’s role.
July 9, 2020
El Silencio de las Gaitas
Lays out military responsibility for historically bloody paramilitary massacres in the Montes de María region during the early 2000s.
July 8, 2020
La reconciliación de dos antiguos enemigos
Publicado por El Espectador Colombia 2020 el 24 de junio de 2020.
A former paramilitary leader and former FARC leader get to know each other.
June 24, 2020
El fantasma del narcoparamilitarismo que ronda a Cesar, Magdalena y La Guajira
Publicado por 360-grados.co via Verdad Abierta el 9 de junio de 2020.
Sounds the alarm about the growing presence of the Gulf Clan and Pachencas neo-paramilitary groups in three Caribbean coast departments.
June 9, 2020
La Universidad de Paz que nació en el Chocó
Publicado por El Espectador Colombia 2020 el 8 de junio de 2020.
Survivors of a notorious paramilitary attack in Chocó create a peace community, and now, a peace university.
June 8, 2020
June 4, 2020
The Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) rejects former top paramilitary leader Salvatore Mancuso’s petition to participate in the FARC peace accords’ transitional justice system as a “third party.” As a paramilitary leader, Mancuso—who was extradited to the United States in 2008 and imprisoned for drug trafficking, but who completed his sentence in early 2020—falls within the “Justice and Peace” transitional justice system set up for the paramilitaries’ post-2006 demobilization. The JEP denies that Mancuso, one of the most senior leaders of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), could possibly have qualified as an outside supporter of paramilitaries during the pre-AUC era (late 1980s and early 1990s).
June 4, 2020