Colombian cartels enforce COVID-19 lockdown by killing violators

Guwahati: Human Rights Watch, an NGO, has warned that illegal armed gangs are imposing COVID-19 quarantines in Colombia where the country's Government does not have a strong presence. Alarmingly, people have been threatened and even killed by these groups and at least 9 lockdown breakers have been executed by the groups for refusing to comply with their rules.

Edison Leon, a community leader, was executed was in June after sending a letter alerting local authorities that members of a gang called 'La Mafia' were forcing residents to staff a health checkpoint in the south-western region of Putumayo. Days after he wrote the complaint, he was killed.

These COVID restrictions in Colombia have been upped following the steady increase in cases in Colombia, where over 1 lakh people have so far been infected by the contagious disease. There have also been 5,814 confirmed deaths.

Meanwhile, residents have been banned from fishing by gangs in the Pacific coast port city of Tumaco, which is one of the most dangerous places in Colombia.

A 5 pm curfew has also been called by the gun-toting gangs, which is far stricter than that imposed by the government.

Jose Miguel Vivanco, Americas director for Human Rights Watch has rued that lockdown breakers being met with such violent treatment by the armed personnel poses a great danger to rural people's lives.

These groups include rebel dissidents of the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and the National Liberation Army, among others and it is being alleged that they are using the pandemic to assert their control and gain legitimacy in the eyes of the public.

At the same time, it is believed that many of them are acting out of genuine fear as many of the rural areas where the armed groups operate do not have hospitals equipped with ventilators to treat those who become severely ill.

According to Human Rights Watch, the illegal armed groups are imposing rules to halt the spread of COVID-19 in at least 11 of Colombia's 32 states and they are using violence in at least 5 of those. The groups reportedly send warnings to local residents through letters written with ink or WhatsApp messages.

Locals have alleged that when someone is suspected to have Covid-19, they are told by the gun groups to leave the region or they will be killed.

A pamphlet from one such group was recovered in Northern Colombia in which the gunslingers said that they have been 'forced to kill people in order to preserve lives' and said that only those working in food stores, bakeries, or pharmacies are allowed out.

The Colombia COVID-19 quarantines being established by the illegal armed groups are even stricter than those imposed by the government, Human Rights Watch found and some illegal armed groups refuse to let people go out even for medical care.

The abusive social control of cartels in the country has been attributed to the government's long-standing failure to establish a meaningful state presence in remote areas of the country.

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