Despite security gains, crime is still rampant Colombia
The Colombia is safer than ever in a quarter century. But the nation continuous to the serious challenges of human rights as left guerrilla groups and paramilitary groups from thousands of slaughter right heirs and keep millions fleeing, according to a report by Human Rights Watch published Monday.
Colombia seeks to resettle farmers displaced "tooltipId ="mi_tt2">"Colombia seeks to resettle displaced farmers
In the hope to relocate to more than 3.4 million people displaced by decades of violence, Colombia of land illegally acquired breaks and issue of securities.
Colombians prosecutions against Chiquita continue "tooltipId ="mi_tt3">"Colombians prosecutions against Chiquita continue
A federal judge refused Friday to dismiss suits by thousands of Colombians against produce seller right Chiquita Brands International over its payments to a paramilitary group responsible for killing and terrorizing civilians during the long civil war of the Colombia.
Colombians prosecutions against Chiquita continue "tooltipId ="mi_tt4">"Colombians prosecutions against Chiquita continue
A federal judge refused Friday to dismiss suits by thousands of Colombians against produce seller right Chiquita Brands International over its payments to a paramilitary group responsible for killing and terrorizing civilians during the long civil war of the Colombia.
Chiquita sued in Colombian paramilitary payments "tooltipId ="mi_tt5">"Chiquita sued in Colombian paramilitary payments
Each name is a number, black type on a thick legal document side. They are mothers and fathers, spouses, sisters and brothers of thousands of Colombians who have been killed or disappeared during a bloody civil conflict between leftist guerrillas and paramilitary groups of right-wing whose victims have largely been civil.
BOGOTA - ten years, he has crashed off the coast of his farm, Larino Nengarade was scraping a life by selling necklaces of pearls on a filthy sidewalk a few blocks from the Presidential Palace.
Friday evening, the President Juan Manuel Santos has ratified a radical program that would give Nengarade - and a about 4 million Colombians who have been victims of civil conflict in the country - the right to seek redress.
Santos has called the victims and right of Restitution of land one of the most important initiatives of his nascent administration and the key to end a century of half-long cycle of violence. "If I do nothing else, this will be made my useful Presidency," he said as Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon as guest of honour.
A key element of the legislation would provide restitution to Colombians who have lost family members or have been driven out of their lands. Whereas the amounts have not been fixed, legislators their range waiting approximately $ 10,000 to $ 20,000.
"This sounds like good news," said Nengarade, a member of the Embera Chami tribe. "But they have made many promises before and look at how we are." We barely make enough to feed us. »
The money is largely symbolic, said Guillermo Rivera, a member of the Liberal Party which helped promote legislation. But it is also a realistic programme that the Government is pursuing a "political mass restitution" which is also aware of its responsibility, he said.
Under the Act, those who have been victims after 1985 are eligible for the economic remedies and those who have lost land after 1991 can seek his return. In a blink of eye to the fact issues are no more, the Act will cover the victims in 2021.
The Colombia was locked in a civil conflict culminating in an orgy of violence during the 1980s and 1990s. As left-wing guerrillas, extreme right-wing paramilitary groups and the military have fought for control, hundreds of thousands of civilians have taken between two fires.
The Government estimates, some 3.4 million people have been displaced by the conflict.
With recognizing the victims of paramilitary violence and guerrilla, she also recognizes those who fell prey to abuse by armed forces.
Prohibition of the United Nations said that Colombia had the support of the international community. "To achieve peace and reconciliation, a society must recognize the pain and suffering of its victims," he said.
While the project was hailed as a step in the right direction by many, some caution it is too early to call a success.
This particular law will require the President and his cabinet to be strongly involved in its implementation, says Gustavo Gallón Giraldo, Director of the Colombian Commission of Jurists, which handles hundreds of cases for the victims of violence.
So, he said "will depend on how strongly this Act is applied,". "It might be very useful." "But it could also be just another enactment dead."
And even though Santos was granted a priority, there is no guarantee that future Governments will, Giraldo said.
Yanette Bautista, Director of Nydia Erika Bautista Foundation, said the legislation is a step in the right direction, but it has some serious holes.
The Foundation is named after the sister of Bautista, who she suspects was abducted, tortured and killed by the military in 1987 to be a member of the now defunct M-19 guerrilla group. Under the new Act, guerrilla and the paramilitaries are not eligible as of victims, and Bautista will be exempted from repairs, even if she has children of his sister.
Unlike countries such as the Argentina or El El Salvador, where truth commissions have been installed, this law does not provide a forum to dig up the facts, she said.
"The force of this Act is in the restitution of land," said Bautista. "But it does not deal with those who have disappeared and it does not help us to discover the truth." And in my case, that I sought the truth for 30 years.
In the previous administration of Alvaro Uribe, Colombia has made enormous progress against the guerrilla and paramilitary violence. And while the nation is more secure than it has been for decades, the problems remain.
The Group American defence of interests, Refugees International, said that some 20,000 people have been forced from their land during the first four months of the year. And community leaders who have tried to recover seized land was taken for target. So far this year, 10 land rights defenders were killed - Tuesday on the latest.
Nengarade attempted to attract customers to buy its goods, he said that his village, Belén de Umbría in the western province of Risaralda, had been terrorized by the FARC, the paramilitary groups and criminal gangs for years.
"If the Government wants to do something for us now is a good news", he said. "But we cannot go back home." It is still too dangerous. »
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