Weekly Report - 3 March 2011 (WR-11-09)

COLOMBIA | Security. Emerging criminal groups, or Bacrim, are the main cause of violence in Colombia and drove a 40% increase in massacres in 2010, according to the annual report of the representative of the UN high commissioner for human rights in Colombia, Christian Salazar. “These groups have the power to corrupt and infiltrate the state ... (they) are a strong threat to the rule of law," Salazar said. The report, which also emphasised advances made by President Juan Manuel Santos to improve human rights, tallies with the government's own assessment of its security challenges. Last month the government announced a national security plan to deliver a crushing blow to the Bacrim, which it considers to pose the greatest threat to peace in the country [WR-11-06].

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