Ombudsman warns about municipalities with electoral risks

In a meeting with the President of the Republic, Gustavo Petro Urrego, at the Casa de Nariño, the Ombudsman, Carlos Camargo Assis, expressed his concern about the situation of risk of violations of human rights in which different regions of the national territory.

“We made known the map of impacts on human rights in relation to the October electoral contest. Over the next few days, as the Ombudsman’s Office, we are going to present the Early Warning of electoral risks. We want to improve the institutional response based on the recommendations that we will make in our warning document. Our purpose is to anticipate, mitigate and counteract the possible effects that may arise before and during the upcoming democratic festival,” said Carlos Camargo Assis.

He assured that the panorama at the national level is not encouraging at present: “Around 380 municipalities are between high risk and extreme risk. This means that there is a high probability of the occurrence of acts that violate human rights. Especially in the southwest of the country, as it is a large area that generates concern due to the presence of different illegal armed structures.”

Some factions of the FARC dissidents, such as the Central General Staff (led by ‘Iván Mordisco’) and the Second Marquetalia, the National Liberation Army (ELN), the Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AGC – Clan del Golfo), among others are groups outside the law that today are present and have influence in 392 municipalities in 24 departments.

In the socialization that Camargo Assis gave to the president of the Colombians during the meeting, he indicated how they agreed that in the development of the bilateral ceasefire the most important thing is that the civilian population is not going to be affected by any event that could violate the agreed temporary interruption of the internal armed conflict, under any circumstances.

“It is imperative that there be an immediate cessation of any impact on the individual and collective human rights of the populations throughout Colombian territory. When we talk about immediate cessation, we are talking about a decontamination process; that is, to avoid the installation of devices or antipersonnel mines planted in some regions. But we also expressed other facts that cause concern,” said the Ombudsman.

He made it clear that he also expressed the need for an immediate end to extortion, selective homicides, as well as the recruitment of girls, boys and adolescents.

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