by CONSTANZA VIEIRA
(IPS) – There have been “few tangible improvements” in human rights in Colombia, says Amnesty International’s new report, which also points to legal loopholes that ensure impunity, as well as government attacks on court rulings. This is the situation in Colombia as described by the global rights watchdog in its annual report, released Wednesday at its London headquarters.
“In its discourse, the Colombian government (of conservative President Juan Manuel Santos) has demonstrated a commitment to human rights, and it is clear that his stance on the issue has been more constructive than that of the previous government” of the right-wing Álvaro Uribe (2002-2010), Amnesty International’s Colombia researcher Marcelo Pollack told IPS.
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“Civilians – especially indigenous peoples, Afro-descendant and peasant farmer communities, human rights defenders, community leaders and trade unionists – continued to bear the brunt of the human rights consequences of the long-running internal armed conflict,” the report says.
“More than 45 human rights defenders and community leaders, including many working on land issues, and at least 29 trade union members, were killed in 2011,” it adds.
After the partial demobilization of the paramilitaries between 2003 and 2006, many of them regrouped in what the government now refers to as “bacrim” (short for “criminal bands” in Spanish), which continue to be tolerated by the security forces in some regions.
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