The state body that watches over human rights did not reveal how long the victims have been in captivity, but assured that the number may be higher given the intimidation suffered by various populations, the AFP news agency reported.
“So far in 2022, six new cases have already been reported, but the figure may be higher due to the difficult public order situation in regions such as Arauca (northeast Colombia) where many inhabitants prefer to remain silent so as not to be subject to reprisals,” added Camargo.
In the most intense period of the confrontation, at the beginning of the century, up to nine kidnappings were recorded daily, according to official statistics.
Armed groups, drug traffickers and paramilitaries used kidnapping as a weapon of war and a source of financing for six decades.
After their demobilization in 2006, the former leaders of the FARC are responding to the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) for 21,000 kidnappings.
If they accept their responsibility and make amends to the victims, they may receive alternative sentences to jail.
Although the violence subsided with the disarmament of the FARC, Colombia is going through a new cycle of assassinations, kidnappings and displacement at the hands of groups that are financed mainly by the drug trafficking.
The department hardest hit by kidnapping is the region of Cauca’s Valleyin the southwest of the country, with 17 cases, one of them registered on January 12, 2022, according to the Ombudsman’s Office.
The other abductions occurred in departments near the border with Venezuelawhere 67 deaths also occurred between January and the first days of February of this year, all linked to the clashes between the FARC dissidents and the guerrillas of the THE N (National Liberation Army).
These armed groups are vying for control over the border area to dominate the routes to take cocaine out of Colombia, the world’s leading producer of the alkaloid, to Venezuela, and from there move it to other countries, according to Colombian authorities.
In this context, the Colombian Army announced last week a new military deployment of 240 soldiers who will arrive this Wednesday in the Arauca region, in the northeast of the country.
Source: Ambito
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