Colombian activists often targeted
have stayed are the strongest.”
Political analysts have struggled to explain the connection between the increase in homicides and the peace deal that ended the civil war between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a rebel group. Peter Cousins, an academic who studies Colombian political violence at the University of York in Britain, theorizes that the peace deal emboldened victims of the half-century-long civil conflict to be more vocal in seeking restitution for lost land and other assets, as promised by terms of the peace deal.
That has made them more visible and therefore vulnerable to death squads hired by “people who have profited from the war who are afraid of losing what they have gained, such as land,” Cousins said.
The new government protection plan is expected to be unveiled as early as Monday. Details are being closely guarded by the Interior Ministry, which will administer the program in cooperation with law enforcement and social agencies.
But Francisco Barbosa, a human rights adviser to President Ivan Duque, said in an interview in Bogota on Nov. 6 that the new plan will focus mainly on delivering greater protection and a governmental presence in 50 to 60 townships where increased cultivation of coca leaf, the raw material of cocaine, has attracted drug trafficking mafias and new waves of violence.
“Illicit cultivation of coca is generating a considerable increase in criminal organizations who are killing our leaders. It is a terrible situation for Colombia,” Barbosa said, adding that rural leaders who try to stop the recruitment of local youths by the mafias become prime targets.
Zuleta of Rios Vivos, who has been told some of the new plan’s details, said she is concerned that it will focus too much on drug trafficking “because coca is the theme that gets talked about on an international level.”
She said she worries that it will shift the focus away from groups like hers, “and make it easier for the government to deny our problems exist.”