🗞️ Within twenty four hours, a wave of 19 terrorist attacks in southwest Colombia left at least eight people dead and around fifty injured last Tuesday.
The attacks - many of which targeted police stations - included drones, gunfire, car bombs, and motorcycle bombs. Twelve were counted in the department of Cauca and seven in neighbouring Valle del Cauca; three bombs were detonated in the city of Cali in the space of twenty minutes.
While these attacks were an escalation of violence in the region – particularly in Cali itself - the southwest has long been an epicentre of violence in Colombia.
Minister of Defence Pedro Sánchez blamed FARC dissident group Estado Mayor Central (EMC) for the attacks, describing the violence as a "reaction by illegal armed groups to the massive operations of the state, which have devastated their illicit structures and economies." Others have suggested that the attacks mark the anniversary of the death of FARC dissident commander Leider Johani Noscue, alias ‘Mayimbú.’
A special security council was called by Cali’s Mayor Alejandro Eder, who recalled the peak of cartel violence saying, “This is a delicate situation, we cannot return to the 1980s.”
🗞️ These attacks come in the wake of last week’s public assassination attempt on politician Miguel Uribe Turbay, a presidential hopeful for the political right. Uribe remains in hospital in critical condition following various emergency surgeries, having been shot twice in the head on the 7th June.
In solidarity with Uribe, both chambers of Congress suspended sessions, and on Sunday around 120,000 people marched in cities across Colombia – demonstrations dubbed ‘The March of Silence.’
The 14-year-old boy who shot Uribe - captured fleeing the scene - is now being prosecuted, but has plead ‘not guilty’ to charges. Two others have now also been detained, a man charged with participation in the planning and logistics of the crime, and a 19-year-old woman detained on suspicion of having provided the gun.
The investigation’s ongoing focus will be identifying the intellectual author of the attempted killing: Semana magazine reported this week that the boy has said a local crime boss had promised him 20 million pesos to kill Uribe. The Ministry of Defence is offering a reward of three billion pesos for more information.
Amid increasing fear of political violence, the government has formed an electoral oversight commission to ensure security and democratic guarantees in the run-up to next year’s elections, but nine political parties have rejected the government as guarantor of the elections, saying they will not participate.
Meanwhile the killings of local and community leaders continue in Colombia: 75 leaders have been murdered so far this year, according to NGO Indepaz.
🗞️ The guerrilla group Comuneros de Sur have agreed to a temporary location zone (ZUT) in the department of Nariño: a third of the group’s members are expected to relocate to the agreed area, on the condition of disarmament.
The group has also agreed to a process for transition to civilian life, to be led by the National Agency for Reincorporation (ARN) – an agency created as part of the 2016 peace deal with the FARC.
This agreement concluded the seventh cycle of talks with the national government, and with this announcement, the Comuneros del Sur are the third armed group that have agreed to ZUTs.
🗞️ Meanwhile in the Senate, more than 75% of provisions of the labour reform bill have been passed in debate, with this legislative period ending this week.
Simultaneously, the government continues to pursue a referendum which would pose twelve provisions to the public, obliging Congress to pass them if approved by voters. The majority of proposed questions relate to labour reform, but some health reform provisions are also included.
After the Senate voted down the proposal for the referendum last month, the government have resorted to establishing the referendum by executive decree, bypassing the legislature. President Gustavo Petro and his ministers have now signed the decree, which has come to be known as ‘el decretazo’.
Critics have seen the decree as unconstitutional, undermining the separation of powers: there are now around 20 legal petitions against the decree at the Council of State and at least six at the Constitutional Court.
The Public Prosecutor has announced an investigation into the ministers who signed the decree, on the grounds that it may violate the rule of law.
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