Bogotá .- Left-wing former presidential candidate Iván Cepeda criticized this Wednesday the first security measures announced by Colombia’s president-elect, Abelardo de la Espriella, and warned that they represent a threat to the rule of law and human rights.
“Colombia is beginning to take on the configuration of a paramilitary government,” stated Cepeda in a statement released on social media, in which he indicated that this conclusion is based on the three security initiatives proposed by De la Espriella.
It involves the creation of urban search blocks against crime and “security front lines” composed of veterans and reservists from the Military Forces; the re-establishment of the Mobile Anti-Disturbance Squadron (Esmad) and the construction of private mega-prisons managed by a new penitentiary corps also made up of reservists.
Concern regarding the monopoly on force and social protest
Cepeda, a senator from the leftist Pacto Histórico party, maintained that the formation of these security bodies would imply delegating functions inherent to the public security forces to private individuals, which, in his view, breaks the constitutional monopoly on the use of force and reproduces schemes historically associated with paramilitarism.
“The result of the history of paramilitarism in Colombia has never been more security, but rather more violence, more arbitrariness, and more impunity,” he stated in a declaration released on his social media.
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Cepeda also questioned the announced “zero tolerance” policy regarding blockades and acts of vandalism during demonstrations, considering that it implies a criminalization of social protest.
In that sense, he rejected the intention to reinstate the Police’s Esmad, a body that, according to him, was linked to serious human rights violations during previous governments.
During the administration of the outgoing president, Gustavo Petro, that group was renamed the Dialogue and Order Maintenance Unit (Undemo) and its procedures were modified.
Cepeda insists on alleged paramilitary links
Likewise, Cepeda criticized the proposal to build ten mega-prisons with private sector participation and to replace the National Penitentiary and Prison Institute (Inpec) with a new body composed of veterans and reservists, which in his opinion implies a “privatization and paramilitarization” of the penitentiary system.
The Pacto Histórico senator also recalled the criminal complaint he filed weeks ago against De la Espriella for alleged ties to paramilitary organizations and maintained that the president-elect’s government program seeks to revive a model he described as contrary to the Constitution.
In that sense, he reiterated his call for “peaceful civil disobedience” regarding the announced policies.
Cepeda’s statements come amid the growing confrontation between the outgoing Government and the future Administration, which on Tuesday suspended, in separately made decisions, the power transition process in Colombia that De la Espriella is set to assume on August 7.
