Arauca

• The air force bombed a FARC arms factory near the border with Venezuela. Four rebels were killed in the attack and two were captured.

Caqueta

• President Santos has offered a reward of up to 500 million pesos for information regarding FARC leaders in the province where Chinese oil workers and their translator were kidnapped in June 8.

• The FARC set off a "donkey bomb" in San Vicente del Caguán. The bomb exploded near an army outpost, although the animal's intended final destination was the town square.

Cauca

• The towns of Toribio and Corinto have declared a state of emergency following multiple FARC attacks in the past few months. Along with police stations, churches, and schools, almost 500 houses have been destroyed by FARC bombings. The cost of rebuilding both towns is well over 1000 million pesos.

• The FARC released a communique blaming the government for the death and destruction caused by the guerrilla attacks in Toribío, Corinto y Caldon. The FARC claims that the state is at fault for placing military and police buildings and personnel among the civilian population.

Cordoba

• Four people, including a 13-year-old, were shot to death by unidentified gunmen during an attack on a hair salon in Cereté. The attack brings the total number of violent deaths in Cordoba for the month of July up to 28.

• A joint operation of the Army, the National Police, and the DAS led to the capture of one leader and eight members of the criminal gang "Urabeños." The leader, known only under the alias "28," is reportedly responsible for coordinating the attacks against the "Paisas" criminal gang that led to the displacement of farmers in Tierralta y Valencia.

Huila

• Two FARC guerrillas from the "Marquetalia" column were killed and one injured during a confrontation with the armed forces in the north of Huila. Intelligence sources have reported that the column's mission is to open a corridor for weapons and supply trafficking through Tolima, Huila y Meta.

Magdalena

• One person was killed and two were injured in a bomb attack in Santa Marta. According to authorities, the attack was directed at the house of two lawyers.

Meta

• Protestors blocked oil production in the Llanos Basin following the firing of 1,100 oil contractors by Cepcolsa. At least 10,000 oil workers went on strike in solidarity with the fired workers.

Narino

• Two Liberal politicians were freed from captivity after being kidnapped as they traveled from Tumaco to Salahonda 5 days earlier. According to an official, the two men were abducted by mistake.

Santander

• Authorities apprehended FARC leader Hugo Alberto Campo Moreno, known as "Diomedes" or "el Gato," in Bucaramanga.

This blog entry was written by CIP Intern Claire O'Neill McCleskey.

While there continues to be conflict-related violence throughout Colombia, much of the recent violence seems to be concentrated in the country's urban centers, most notably in Bogotá and Medellín. In both of these urban centers murder rates and gun violence attributed to emerging criminal groups, the apparent successors to the disbanded AUC paramilitary structure, have continued to surge.

According to a report released Thursday, August 18th by the Bogotá mayor's office, there were 938 recorded murders in the Colombian capital between January and July -- 33 more than in the same seven-month span last year. The Ciudad Bolívar district in southern Bogotá had the highest murder rate out of the city's 20 districts, citing 157 murders so far this year, 141 men and 16 women.

On August 13th, less than a week after the inauguration of Colombia's new president Juan Manuel Santos, Bogotá suffered a car bombing on a principal street, near the Caracol Radio network. The attack took place at 5:30 a.m. and injured 36, while damaging 424 homes and offices. Juan Manuel Santos has offered 500 million Colombian pesos (about $250,000) for information leading to the arrest of those responsible for the bombing and the government in Cundinamarca, the department around Bogotá, has offered another 30 million pesos. Authorities have arrested three people implicated in the attack, however police are still unsure who is responsible; both right-wing paramilitary groups and the left-wing guerrilla group the FARC are being considered. The Colombian newsweekly Semana has a short overview of the case's conflicting evidence.

Medellín, Colombia's second-largest city, has also experienced an increase in violence. This year there have been 1,322 murders, 12 percent more than the same period in 2009. Comuna 13, located in the central western part of the city with a population of 134,000, continues to be the city's most violent area, registering 12.4 percent of the city’s total death toll. According to Colombian newspaper El Tiempo, there are more than 140 gangs currently operating in the city- about a dozen or so in Comuna 13 alone- fighting for territorial control and command of drug, gambling, and prostitution rings. There has also been an increase in illegal arms sales throughout the city, which authorities believe indicates the sponsorship of smaller groups by organizations like the "Office of Envigado" headed by Erick Vargas, alias "Sebastian" and Maximiliano Bonilla, alias "Valenciano", and "Los Urabenos" and "Los Rastrojos."

In an effort to thwart the escalating violence, Medellín Mayor Alonso Salazar, police commander General Oscar Naranjo and Defense Minister Rodrigo Rivera held a Security Council meeting last weekend after Salazar asked the National Government for additional help in combating the violence. After the meeting, Naranjo announced several new security measures that local authorities would be taking, including the installation of video cameras in particularly violent areas and security checkpoints at the entry points to Comuna 13. He also announced the creation of an "Integrated Intervention Center," the purpose of which will be to study the violence and devise new "preventative" plans to control it, as well as the deployment of 800 extra police to Comuna 13.

On Wednesday August 18th, 14 members of the leftist National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrilla group were killed in an aerial attack on an encampment in Tarazá in the Bajo Cauca region of the Antioquia department, about 100 miles northeast of Medellín. In the attack, known as "Operation Alliance," the military leader of the group's "Darío de Jesús Ramírez" front, alias "Éver," was killed. "Ever" had been with the group for 18 years and was allegedly responsible for laying more than 43 landmine fields in the past year. The ELN units affected had also allegedly been coordinating narcoproduction and trafficking operations with FARC fronts in the region.

Over the weekend in Tame, a rural region in Arauca department, FARC leader Jhon Javier Gil, alias "Milton Díaz," was killed along with two other members of the guerrilla group in a clash with the armed forces. "Milton Díaz" was allegedly second in command of the "Alfonso Castellanos" unit of the FARC and responsible for the oversight of several attacks in the region within the past three years. Soldier Abigail Tariffa Cardenas also died in the operation. Also in Arauca over the weekend, in Saravena, soldiers found an escaped Eln member, a four-month-pregnant fourteen year old.

In response to escalating levels of gang-related violence, the Ministry of Defense held a Security Council meeting this past weekend in Montelíbano, in Córdoba department. Since January of this year there have been more than 400 murders in the region, the majority related to the narcotrafficking operations of emerging criminal groups, which have continued to grow, four years after the AUC's official demobilization. According to the People's Defense Council, Cordoba's San Jorge municipality is among the most high-risk zones in the region, as the Troncal roadway, which runs through the area, has become the territorial dividing line between three criminal groups: "Los Urabenos," "Los Paisas" and "Las Aguilas." The situation in Monteria, Córdoba's capital, is equally precarious, as at least 60 people have been killed in the past eight months due to narcotrafficking and gang-related violence.

The council announced several measures to be implemented in the coming months as a "total offensive" against the criminal groups, including an antinarcotics post in Necoclí in Antioquia department, 14 squadrons of border police, and six intelligence bases that will be established in various municipalities throughout Córdoba, as well as in Urabá and Bajo Cauca in Antioquia department.

On Sunday August 15th in Puerto Asís, Putumayo department, two teenage boys were killed, followed by another this past Friday, August 20th. The names of the three boys had appeared on a "death threat" list of 69 names posted on Facebook three weeks earlier and circulated on fliers throughout the town. The flier asked residents to evacuate the town in three days and threatened to continue committing acts like "those on August 15th" should they not comply.

Initially authorities believed the incidents to be a joke, however following a town Security Council meeting on Friday, the town's Defense Council attributed the murders and threats to "Los Rastrojos," a criminal group with a strong presence in several neighborhoods in Puerto Asis. The gang has been linked to various other violent threats, attacks, and intimidation tactics.

On Monday August 23, the Anncol website, which frequently posts FARC communications, posted a letter from the guerrilla group requesting that UNASUR mediate peace talks with the government. In the open statement the FARC Secretariat indicated, "When you deem it opportune, we are ready to explain during a UNASUR assembly our vision of the Colombian conflict." This is following an announcement by President Santos last Tuesday that "military results every day, on different fronts" was how the country is "going to finally achieve peace." He continued, "until we see clear irrefutable proof that the conditions we have given are adhered to, there is no possibility for dialogue." This is the group's second statement mentioning peace talks since President Santos was elected; the first came from leader Alfonso Cano in a video released on July 30th.

This blog post was written by CIP intern Sarah Kinosian

Much recent violence was concentrated in the Antioquia department in northwestern Colombia. There, in one six-day period, nineteen people were killed in three separate attacks.

The first of these massacres occurred Friday July 2, in Envigado near Medellín, where eight were killed in a shooting at a bar around 2 a.m. Gen. Óscar Naranjo, director of Colombia's National Police, attributes the attack to rivalries between factions of the "Oficina de Envigado," a narcotrafficking syndicate once dominated by ex-paramilitary commander Diego Fernanco Murillo, alias "Don Berna," who was extradited to the United States in 2008. The two factions, led by alias 'Sebastián' and 'Valenciano,' are fighting for control of illicit funds and the local drug trade. Authorities are offering a reward of 200 million Colombian pesos (about $105,000) for any information leading to the arrest of the shooters.

In a statement released July 2nd, President Álvaro Uribe said that the incident was demonstrative of "the criminal phenomenon of narcotrafficking" that has stricken the country and that the Colombian government, armed forces and justice system "has to do more."

The next attack came on Sunday, July 4th, in Cisneros in northwest Antioquia, where a shooting left four dead and one wounded. All four victims had criminal records for various offenses, namely homicide, illegal transport of arms, and links to criminal groups. Police believe the shooting to be a retaliation attack by "Los Rastrojos," another criminal group with paramilitary heritage, on another, "Los Urabeños." Violence between these two groups vying for territorial control of trafficking routes is common in the area.

The third incidence of violence took place Wednesday, July 7th in Uramita municipality, also in northwestern Antioqua. At around 5 PM, a family of seventeen traveling along the Guayabo Juntas road was attacked by a group of ten armed men. Of the seven people killed, two had previous criminal records and links to paramilitary units that transitioned into criminal groups following the 2006 AUC demobilization effort. Two of those killed were minors.

While the investigation is still underway, authorities are certain that the violence is centered on competition between rival emerging criminal groups involved in narcotrafficking. Prior to 2006, there was a heavy paramilitary presence in Uramita. Following the demobilization, however, the various paramilitary units broke down and now the Urabeños and FARC operate in the zone. The Antioquian government has offered a 100 million-peso reward for information leading to the capture of the offenders. It has also pledged to increase its presence along three important roadways that criminal groups have been targeting: those connecting Medellín to the northwest port region of Urabá, the central Magdelena Medio river region, and the Atlantic coast.

On Wednesday in Bolívar department near the Caribbean coast, security forces launched an aerial attack that killed 13 FARC members. According to intelligence officials, the FARC were attempting to re-establish their presence in the Magdalena Medio region, from which it had been largely expelled since the mid-2000s. President Uribe said the attack was "a message" to the Farc's second- in- command, Ivan Marquez.

Also this week, the Colombian military launched an attack against paramount FARC leader Alfonso Cano in Florida municipality, in Valle del Cauca department. According to the Colombian newspaper El Espectador, the Colombian security agency DAS paid for information about the location of a FARC encampment believed to be used by Cano.

Over the weekend, the death toll in Colombia reached 31 due to a wave of FARC-related violence in various regions throughout the country. The assorted attacks culminated in the death of 12 rebels, 13 soldiers, 2 policemen, 2 government officials and 2 civilians.

Yesterday, July 11, at around one in the morning, a combination task force of Colombian Air Force members and local police launched a surprise attack on a FARC unit in the Tolima department. The attack left 12 rebel members dead, all of whom were part of a unit assigned to protect the group's dominant leader, Guillermo Sáenz, alias 'Alfonso Cano.' Although the assault did not result in Cano's capture, it did claim the life of Magaly Grannobles who Gen. Freddy Padilla, commander of the Colombian armed forces, described as "an extremely dangerous criminal and a trusted confidant of the FARC leader."

Also over this weekend, 13 soldiers were killed along the Venezuelan border in the northwest region of the Arauca province. On Saturday, 3 soldiers died in a minefield in the Puerto Rondón municipality of the province. On Sunday, 10 soldiers were killed and another four were wounded in a confrontation with the FARC on the El Sinaí road in the Arauqita municipality of the Arauca department. The soldiers were pursuing FARC members who were supposedly trying to blow up electrical towers. The FARC also attacked a DAS patrol unit in the region, which left one explosives technician dead and another two detectives in critical condition.

On Sunday in the municipality of Suárez in the Tolima province, the FARC assaulted a local police patrol unit, using firearms and explosives, killing two police and two civilians.

In the Antioquia department, a FARC unit open-fired on a vehicle, which left one government official dead and another three wounded.

This post was written by CIP intern Sarah Kinosian

Much of the violence last week was related to the Sunday June 20th presidential election in which former defense minister Juan Manuel Santos beat two-time Bogota mayor Antanas Mockus in a landslide victory. While both candidates pledged throughout their campaigns to continue the government’s fight against the FARC, Santos’ win means the extension of current president Álvaro Uribe’s Democratic Security policy, which has weakened the insurgency since its implementation in 2003.

Following the vote last Sunday, Santos declared that, “the FARC’s time has run out” and reiterated the sitting administration’s policy, asserting, “as long as [the FARC] insist on using their terrorist methods, there will be no dialogue.” In response, in a statement released on June 21st, the FARC declared Santos’ victory as the “illegal triumph of continuity,” and claimed that the country’s “political fight has entered a phase of radicalization.” The document said that Colombians “condemned” the president-elect through their “abstention,” referring to statistics that place less than 50% of citizens at the polls last Sunday.

In eight of Colombia’s 32 departments, rebels are reported to have burned ballots or otherwise disturbed voting. Although this election was the least violent in four decades, there were smatterings of violence in various regions leading up to the elections, culminating in the death of at least 16 on Election Day.

On Sunday, June 20th, as Colombians cast their votes, in a rural area of the Meta department, FARC members killed three soldiers transporting voting papers while in another part of the department the military shot six FARC members who were allegedly planning to attack local polling stations. Also on Sunday, in the Norte de Santander province near the Venezuelan border, seven policemen were killed in a minefield and another eight went missing. An additional nine FARC members were arrested in the port city of Buenaventura, before they could carry out any attacks, authorities said.

In Tolima, the governor encouraged people to get out to the polls despite FARC intimidation tactics. According to the governor, the rebel group was threatening voters particularly in the more rural zones of the region. Additionally, in many parts of Tolima on Sunday there was no public transport between cities and throughout the countryside, as many proprietors feared left-wing insurgency groups would incinerate their vehicles.

On June 17th, the Thursday before the election, in Suaza in the Huila province, the army found a metric ton of explosives, including various antipersonnel landmines, in a cove along the ‘Alto Brasil’ roadway connecting the Huila and Caqueta departments. According to authorities, the FARC intended to use the materials to attack the route, dissuading voters from traveling. Similarly, just north of Neiva, police found a carton of explosives after receiving a call that a ‘suspicious man’ had left a package along the road connecting the El Cortijo neighborhood to Galindo. Supposedly the materials were to be transported to Neiva before Sunday.

On June 23rd, just two days after the FARC denounced Santos’ win, in Algeciras, a town located in the central region of the Huila department, the rebel group announced an armed strike against public transport in protest of president-elected Juan Manuel Santos. In response, police escorted buses from the city of Neiva to Algeciras while military forces manned the roadways. The governor of the department encouraged travel despite FARC threats, and guaranteed that the government would incur “100 percent” of the cost of any damages to residents’ vehicles. However, many were still hesitant as similar promises were left unfulfilled during the last FARC strike.

Yesterday, June 28th the FARC issued a statement that announced a 24-hour hiatus in the armed transportation strike. The statement gave farmers and transportation workers from Algeciras until today at noon to distribute all agricultural products to the rest of the country, at which time they would reinstate the strike. Despite the truce, today, June 29th, the FARC incinerated a truck transporting green beans on the roadway between El Toro and Betania.

Looking at violence unrelated to the election:

• On June 23, a 15-year-old girl was injured in a bombing at her home in Chaparral, in the Tolima department. Authorities believe the FARC was behind the incident, as they commonly use such intimidation tactics as a means of extortion. This was the rebel’s second attack against the family’s house.
• As described in last week’s update, recently in the Arauca department, violent clashes have broken out between ELN and FARC groups. In an undated document released this month, the FARC announced the termination of their cease-fire with the ELN that leaders from both groups had agreed to on December 13, 2009. The document accuses the ELN of “assassinating, displacing, and torturing” populations in “FARC territory” and charges the ELN with a series of murders and other intimidation tactics such as making phone calls and sending “threatening pamphlets.” The region has experienced a steady stream of violence throughout the conflict.
• According to a survey recently reported on by Colombian newspaper El Tiempo, residents of Medellín feel markedly more insecure than in 2008. Antioquia’s governor’s office describes the increase in insecurity as “a consequence of clashes between criminal structures,” many of which arose out of the 2005 paramilitary demobilization.
• On Thursday June 24th, in el Valle de Aburrá, Antioquia, authorities captured fifteen members of a band of land pirates that also operated throughout Medellín. The group would hijack vehicles by blocking a road, or dressing as police or military and stop cars asking for documentation and then robbing them.
• Following the region’s trend, in Yalí, Antioquia, authorities arrested a minor for possession of an AK47. While not an unusual occurrence in the conflict, the incident is indicative of larger bouts of violence that have recently flared up between newly emerging criminal groups fighting for territory throughout the city. The two main groups are Los Rastrojos, who are responsible for the majority of narcotrafficking in the city, and Los Urabeños, who fund themselves through violent extortion.
• Over the weekend, Medellín city assembly president, Jhon Jaime Moncada Ospina, was shot in an attack on Saturday night in the Laureles neighborhood. According to reports Mr. Moncada had just pulled up to a stoplight, when four men on motorcycles assaulted his vehicle, issuing him five shots to the chest. While the assemblyman is currently in stable condition, President Uribe has offered a compensation of 100 million Colombian pesos ($50,000) to anyone with any information about the motivations behind the attack or that leads to the detainment of the assailants.
• On Sunday June 27, the FARC killed a policeman in Silvania, Huila, where various factions of the FARC are reported to operate. The policeman was apparently shot while traveling from the police station to his house.

This post was written by CIP intern Sarah Kinosian