Colombia is passion Print

“Colombia is Passion” was the name of the tourist campaign used by the government to bring tourism to the Colombia. To clean the image stained by decades of conflict and violence inflicted by the guerrilla army, the paramilitary groups, the military and the narcos. The campaign managed to give a face lift to the country, making it into a popular destination for tourism. However, what this campaign failed to show is the reality ignored by the high social classes of the country and unknown by the tourists. 734 human right activists and social leaders have been systematically assassinated in Colombia since the peace agreement was singed by the government and the FARC in 2016. These killings have sparked fears of an organized assassination campaign - like the one carried out against the left-wing Patriotic Union (UP) party in the late 1980s. The UP, the FARC's first attempt at forming a political party, lost more than 3,000 members and two presidential candidates to assassinations carried out by paramilitary gunmen sometimes backed by members of the Colombian military. Iván Duque Márques, the current President of Colombia, denies the killings, since 2016, are part of a systematic plan to eliminate activists or community leaders. Many protests have sparked throughout the country creating friction and confrontation with police forces, recently culminating in the murder of a young man by the anti riot squad. Police brutality has subsequently increased following the murder of another man, a lawyer and father of two, beaten to death whilst in police custody. Fear is walking the streets of Colombia with the same confidence it did in the 80’s. The extermination of left wing political leaders and human rights activists at the hands of paramilitary groups, affiliated with the government, and the increasing brutality and extortion from the police forces are submerging Colombia in to a bottomless pond of violence, discrimination and poverty. Colombia is passion only for the rich and the tourist, but not for the millions of people who fight to survive day by day; for them it is nothing but hell.