* Common and organized crime runaways
* It is urgent to stop the growing vacuum of authority
The security and public order crisis in Colombia deepens. As much as the high government insists on minimizing the seriousness of what is happening in various departments and municipalities, it is undeniable that there is a criminal spike in a growing number of cities and municipalities.
What happened in the last week is symptomatic of this dangerous situation: from massacres, murders, a streak of hitmen, attacks on the Public Force and confrontations between criminal gangs, to riots, kidnappings of uniformed officers, civilians and even minors, massive assaults on several cities and an unprecedented wave of extortion, with homicides and terrorist attacks on board… As if that were not enough, the feeling of lack of authority is of such magnitude that the lieutenants of organized and common crime organizations broadcast videos, send audios and utter public threats left and right, not only to intimidate their victims but to escalate the bloody struggle for ‘territorial control’ in which they are engaged with rival factions…
There is no region of the country that is safe from this complicated scenario. Just to refer to the most recent events, in Barranquilla and its metropolitan area, extortion has become a kind of pandemic from which no one is spared and there is a bloody ‘open war’ between different criminal gangs. In Buenaventura, in turn, violence between gangs and criminal organizations intensified, despite a dialogue process that the Government had been carrying out. This week the departmental authorities urged the militarization of the port and yesterday an extraordinary security council was held there, headed by the Minister of Defense and the military and police leadership. Arauca continues to be a critical zone, since the ELN -with whom the readiness phase of the ceasefire is supposed to have begun- not only continues to harass the civilian population, but also kidnapped an Army sergeant with her two small children and attacked the Police station, in Fortul. In Bogotá, meanwhile, mass thefts are increasing dramatically and the wave of extortion has already led to attacks, such as the one perpetrated on Wednesday night with a grenade at a motel in the town of Fontibón. And, as if the above were not enough, in Bucaramanga the death of a motorcyclist in a confusing event at a traffic checkpoint, generated a riot and even a terrorist attack against a police station. Added to all this are various murders of social leaders in some rural areas, an attack on an oil installation in Barrancabermeja, the murder of three police officers in Norte de Santander, an “armed strike” by the ELN in Chocó and many other highly regarded criminal acts. located.
Given all of the above, it is clear that the warning issued by the National Federation of Governors that there is an overflowing climate of violence throughout the country is neither exaggerated nor gratuitous. In fact, yesterday the UN Secretary General himself, in his periodic report on the Colombian situation and the implementation of the agreement with the FARC, gave an account of the persistence of violence from illegal armed groups and criminal organizations that “continues to disturb life of civilians and undermining the construction of peace in several regions”. Between January and May 2023 alone, almost 20,000 displaced persons and 18,789 people confined in 14 departments and 38 municipalities were reported. In the same period, there were 22 massacres and twelve demobilized assassinations in eight departments…
Reviewing all this critical panorama, it is almost impossible to understand that the high government, the Office of the High Commissioner, the Ministry of Defense and even the military and police leadership insist that there is no drastic deterioration in security and public order. The evidence is plain to see. Governors, mayors, the Prosecutor’s Office, the Attorney General’s Office and non-governmental organizations launch bells every day in this regard, without noticing a solid and forceful reaction from the Executive to face this serious situation that day after day claims direct and indirect victims throughout and width of the territory. The residual groups of the Farc, the ELN guerrillas, the ‘Clan del Golfo’ and many other factions of common and organized crime are unleashed.
Consequently, it is urgent that the Government assume the reality of the peak of insecurity and public disorder. The implementation of its troubled peace policy and the confusing messages about the new approach and operational framework of the actions of the Public Force are generating a vacuum of authority and institutional absence in many parts of the territory, which is being taken advantage of by criminals from all over the world. laya, dedicated to expanding their illicit spectrum and victimizing the population.