COVID-19 and The Rise of Armed Groups in Colombia

By Mitchell Litchfield

                                                                         

              

     In 2016, the Columbian and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia signed a peace treaty to stop the violence between the leftist-group and the government. The FARC agreed to demobilize their troops and surrender their weapons, on the terms that rebels be granted amnesty and that they be allowed to represent themselves through political parties among other terms. 4 years later, and violence continues to devastate Columbia. But why? Since the treaty was signed, the government has failed to implement reintegration programs for ex-combatants, leading many to join FARC dissident groups in frustration. In 2019, there were over 2,300 FARC dissident group members, including the 300 that didn’t surrender after the treaty. Ex-rebels may also be joining for revenge as over 300 former FARC members were killed in 2020, yet it is unclear how many guerrillas there actually are (HRW 2020, 2021).

                                                        Lockdown                                                  

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Human Rights Watch has found that these armed groups have been implementing their own measures to stop the spread of Covid-19 in 11 out of Columbia’s 32 states. In at least 5 of these states, groups used violence to force cooperation, and in at least 4, they threatened the locals with violence or fines (HRW 2020).These measures include lockdowns, curfews, movement restrictions, and barring the entry or exit of people within the community. There have been 9 confirmed killings in 3 of these states connected to these rebel groups enforcing their rules (HRW 2020). In the process, they’re further undermining the local people’s access to food, which in the poor rural states these groups are operating, puts communities at risk for starvation. Unemployment in Colombia has about doubled from what it was this time last year, and with much of the economy being informal, most people don’t have a safety net. Then when groups like FARC and ELN come in and offer a way for them to put food on the table, it's hard to pass up. The government is distributing cash and bags of food to affected citizens, but it's inconsistent and hardly enough (Taylor 2020).

                                                Child Recruitment

Other groups like National Liberation Army (ELN) are even hosting parties and messaging kids on WhatsApp to entice them to join, and with Colombia’s schools now all online, children who don’t have access to a computer are likely to look for some other escape from their home lives.  These groups are operating in primarily rural areas and less than 10% of children in these states have access to a computer, subsequently there have been at least 107 documented cases of child recruitment in Colombia this year (United Nations 2021), but the real figure is likely much higher. The majority of these recruits are boys who’re used to grow coca, traffick drugs, and serve as informants. Girls, while recruited less, are generally forced into sexual slavery (Taylor 2020). 

The FARC, ELN, among other paramilitary groups in Colombia are taking advantage of the pandemic to claim former FARC territory in the coca-growing southern states and exploit the people living there. But as the vaccines slowly get distributed around the world, it is unlikely these armed groups will lose their grip on rural Colombia when coronavirus is eradicated, as they continue to gain more members. 

                                                                                                                                                                                     

                                                References: 

Human Rights Watch, 2021, “Columbia: Events of 2020” Human Rights Watch, 2021 https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2021/country-chapters/colombia#79c873 (2021) 

Human Rights Watch, 2020, “Colombia: Armed Groups’ Brutal Covid-19 Measures” Human Rights Watch, 2020

https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/07/15/colombia-armed-groups-brutal-covid-19-measures (July 15th 2020)

United Nations Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict. 2021. “Colombia Report” New York City: United Nations

https://childrenandarmedconflict.un.org/where-we-work/colombia/ (2021)

Taylor, Luke. 2021, “How Colombia’s armed groups are exploiting COVID-19 to recruit children” The New Humanitarian” The New Humanitarian 2021 

https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news-feature/2020/09/10/Colombia-conflict-armed-groups-child-recruitment (September 10th, 2021) 

 

Human Rights Watch, 2020, “Colombia: Events of 2019” Human Rights Watch, 2020

https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2020/country-chapters/colombia (2020)