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WORLD NEWS Thursday 24 sepTember 2020
Wave of massacres signals new chapter in Colombia's conflict

By MANUEL RUEDA the attack, and offered a
Associated Press reward of $300,000 for two
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — of its leaders. On Monday,
Jose Manuel Mancilla was military commanders and
taking a break from his job officials from the defense
at a local gold mine. So on ministry visited the area
Sunday he gathered with and said the army would
friends at a hillside home step up operations against
in his village of Munchique, the FARC dissidents.
where about 20 people But there are many areas of
were drinking and staging Colombia where similar at-
cockfights. tacks have happened and
The 19-year-old's life end- perpetrators still haven't
ed abruptly when hooded been caught.
men began to shoot at Camilo Gonzalez, president
the improvised cockfight- of the Colombian think tank
ing arena with machine Indepaz, said that so far this
guns and threw at least year, there have been 61
two grenades at the terri- incidents in which three or
fied crowd. Six men in all, more civilians were killed by
aged 16 to 28, lost their University students march holding a poster with a message that reads in Spanish: "Who killed armed groups, compared
lives during the attack on them?" during a demonstration against a wave of massacres, in Bogota, Colombia, Monday, to 35 for all of last year.
the western Colombian vil- Sept. 21, 2020. These crimes are described
lage, which is surrounded Associated Press as "massacres" by Colom-
by small gold mines and bia's Human Rights om-
coca fields. The deaths signal a new The new groups can be just Ocean, where cocaine is budsman, while the Ministry
Hours later, four people chapter in the country's as violent, however. loaded onto fast boats that of Defense often calls them
were killed in a similar at- long history of bloodshed. "There is less direct con- take the drug to Central "collective homicides."
tack in Colombia's south- Rather than the previous frontation now between America and Mexico. Gonzalez said the spike in
ern province of Narino. Vid- national dispute between armed groups and the Drug trafficking groups like massacres is happening
eo shared on social media guerrillas and the state, government," said Juan the Gulf Clan and rebel as armed groups reposi-
showed men with assault violence in rural Colombia Carlos Garzon, an expert groups led by former FARC tion themselves around the
rifles shooting at corpses is now marked by a patch- on Colombia's conflict at members who did not country and fight for illegal
floating on a pond. work of local feuds be- the Ideas for Peace Foun- sign the peace deal oper- resources abandoned by
"With all that has been tween criminal groups that dation. "But what you see ate around the village of the FARC rebels.
happening in Colombia it's fight over drug routes, ille- are many attacks against Munchique and elsewhere "These are smaller groups
hard to expect any justice gal mines and even gaso- civilians who are perceived in Cauca state. who have little political pur-
for these crimes," said Edil- line smuggling routes. to be part of the support "There are so many groups pose," Gonzalez said. "They
son Adrono, a town coun- These groups are less ideo- structure of a rival group." with interests here that we are going after drug routes,
cil member in Munchique logical than the leftist guer- Garzon said this struggle don't really know who to gold mines, timber smug-
who lost two cousins in that rillas of the Revolutionary for territorial control could blame," said Clemencia gling, and forming allianc-
town's massacre. "We've Armed Forces of Colombia, explain Sunday's attack at Carabalí, a spokeswoman es with money launderers."
been left alone here, as if a movement known as the the Munchique cockfight- for the Association of Afro In Cauca, where there
we didn't exist on the map." FARC that made peace ing arena. No suspects Colombian Women of have been nine massa-
Alarms are sounding in Co- with the government in have yet been captured. Northern Cauca, a human cres this year, human rights
lombia over a rising tide of 2016 after five decades of The village lies in a corridor rights group. leaders say slow implemen-
violence. More than 230 conflict that killed 250,000 that connects coca fields in Colombia's government tation of the 2016 peace
people have been slain in people and chased mil- Colombia's central moun- pointed to a group of for- deal with the FARC rebels
massacres this year. lions from their homes. tain range with the Pacific mer FARC members for has made matters worse.q
Seoul: Missing South Korean official may be in North Korea

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — the vessel, prompting a so- were on board when the
A South Korean official who far fruitless search involving man went missing. It didn't
disappeared off a govern- aircraft and ships. provide information about
ment ship near the dis- The Defense Ministry said in the missing official. More
puted sea boundary with a statement it had informa- than 30,000 North Koreans
North Korea this week may tion that the missing official have fled to South Korea in
be in North Korea, South was on North Korean shores the past 20 years for politi-
Korea's Defense Ministry on Tuesday afternoon. The cal and economic reasons,
said Wednesday. ministry did not say how it but it's highly unusual for a
The ministry said the obtained that information. South Korean national to
47-year-old official was The ministry said officials will defect to North Korea.
aboard a government ves- contact North Korea to ask At the height of their Cold
sel that was checking on about the missing official War rivalry, North Korea of-
potential unauthorized fish- and take other steps to find ten forcibly towed South
ing near a South Korean more details. Korean fishing boats oper-
border island. Colleagues The Ministry of Oceans and ating near the sea bound- In this Dec. 22, 2010, file photo, a government ship sails past the
noticed the man was Fisheries, which was operat- ary into its waters, holding South Korean Navy's floating base as the sun rises near Yeonpy-
missing at lunch time and ing the vessel the man was some of those on board eong island, South Korea. Associated Press
found only his shoes still on on Monday, said 18 people and returning others. q