Three days have gone by without a violent incident from either the ELN or neoparamilitary groups.
That being said, the security of community leaders throughout the country remains perilous. The following murders have occurred in the past week alone: Faustino Acevedo in Sucre, Adán Bernardo Quinto in Antioquia and Miguel Parra en Bogotá. Moreover, a community leader in Catatumbo was murdered yesterday. (see here for more on Political violence).
The FARC also attacked a police unit in Nariño. In the past three days alone there have been four similar attacks in the departments of North of Santander, Cauca and Caquetá. (see here for more on FARC).
| Violence associated with the Armed Conflict | Peace negotiations | |
| Neoparamilitaries | FARC | |
| Political violence | ELN |
| Violence associated with the Armed Conflict |
FARC
Guerrillas from the 26th Front of the FARC harassed a police substation in the town of Remolino, in the municipality of Taminango (Nariño). The attack killed on auxiliary conscript, Eudes de Jesús Muñoz, and injured one patrolman, Vicente Vargas. A gunfight broke out after the attack in which an unidentified guerilla was killed.
ELN
Three days have gone by without an attack carried out by the ELN.
Neoparamilitaries
Three days have gone by without an attack carried out by neoparamilitary groups.
| Political violence |
In the city of Cali (Valle del Cauca), unknown assailants harassed the director of the regional hub of the University of Buenaventura, Fabio Ramírez. Additionally, the rector of the university, Iván Enrique Ramos, declared that the director of the University Hospital of Valle, professor Jaime Rubiano, was also threatened by unknown assailants.
| Unknown gunmen assassinate community leader in Catatumbo In the county of Gramales in the municipality of Convención (North of Santander), unknown gunmen shot and killed the president of the local community action group, Douglas Zapata, in the town of Cartagenita. |
| Keeping apace with the Peace Negotiations |
As alias “Rodrigo Granda” of the FARC declared on 16 January from Havana that the guerilla group has never targeted civilian populations as part of its political or military strategy. A member of the FARC’s negotiating team, Marcos Calarcá, claimed that whenever FARC military military operations cause civilian victims, the guerilla group “feels a deep remorse” and “reflects upon our desire to end the war in the interest of our people – the very people we come from – so that we can all look toward a more optimistic future in which war no longer plays a part.”
The guerilla leader then added that in order to avoid civilian deaths, “military installations should be removed from civilian populations. In Colombia, where the National Police have long since been transformed from a civilian into a military body, it doesn’t make sense for their combat installations to remain embedded within the civilian population.”
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