Organised crime is biggest security and humanitarian threat to Colombia - U.N. [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

Organised crime is biggest security and humanitarian threat to Colombia - U.N.

Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation - Mon, 16 Mar 2015 19:44 GMT
Author: Anastasia Moloney

BOGOTA, March 16 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Colombia's criminal gangs pose the biggest threat to Colombians and are responsible for human trafficking, rights abuses and for forcing tens of thousands of people to flee their homes each year, the United Nations said.

While the government holds peace talks with leftist rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in a bid to end 50 years of civil war, the main security threat to the Colombian people comes from organised crime - often perpetrated by ex-paramilitary fighters, according to a U.N. report.

Criminal gangs, composed of former right-wing paramilitaries and common criminals, are bent on maintaining and expanding their stakes in the cocaine trade and in illegal gold and silver mining along Colombia's Pacific coast.

"The main public security challenge remains violence by post-demobilisation armed groups linked to organised crime," said the annual human rights report released on Monday.

More:
http://www.trust.org/item/20150316194524-4uy8h/?source=fiOtherNews2

(My emphasis.)