The budgets of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), the Truth Commission and Unit for the Search of Disappeared Persons (UBPD) are guaranteed for 2020 and will see an increase.  The announcement, which comes following a meeting between the heads of the Integrated System of Truth, Justice, Reparation and Non-Repetition and Emilio Archila, the High Counselor for Stabilization, has been received positively by the entities.  The budget of the Truth Commission will increase by 15%, facilitating the contracting of its team of 400.  The UBPD, which was hardest hit by budget cuts in 2019, will be able to contract its set goal of 522 persons, as funds will increase from 34 billion pesos to 58 billion pesos. The budget, proposed by President Duque, will need to be approved by Congress.¹

Three organizations and nearly 140 victims have delivered a report on human rights violations, forced disappearances and extrajudicial killings in Meta, Guaviare and Caquetá to the JEP, Truth Commission and UBPD. The report details acts carried out between 2002 and 2011 in the eastern plains.   The organizations are calling on the UPBD to create an inter-institutional roundtable with victims and human rights organizations for the identification and recuperation of missing bodies in the region and on the Truth Commission to promote spaces for truth-telling and coexistence. Sixty-three cases of extrajudicial killings will be presented to the JEP for Case 003, a delivery that coincides with the voluntary versions of four of 83 military personnel who operated in Meta.² The JEP also received a report this week on eight cases of dispossession of land and forced displacement in Meta, which occurred in the late 1980s and have not yet been restituted nor prosecuted.³ 

Families of victims of forced disappearance in the border regions with Venezuela and human rights organizations have called on the GOC and the Venezuelan government to take action.  This year alone, 97 cases have been reported, while last year the number reached 233. The Association for Relatives of Detained and Disappeared Persons specifically requested the UBPD to install a regional unit and the National Search Commission to facilitate dialogue between the two countries on the humanitarian search.⁴

Violence against civilians has increased during 2019, according to the latest report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs-OCHA. The report, which compares the first semesters of 2018 and 2019, details the increase of intentional homicides against civilians (+55%), injuries in war (+90%), torture (+80%), and attacks (+50%).  Confinement, which saw a 50% increase, almost entirely occurred in Afro-Colombian and Indigenous communities (93% of those affected). The number of events that affected the civilian population rose from 981 to 1,089 in 2019.⁵

Indigenous communities in northern Cauca have raised flags on the security conditions in their communities following the assassination of two leaders in first days of August and recent attacks on indigenous guards.  Since the beginning of the year, 33 murders, 7 attacks and 38 collective and individual threats have been recorded in this region.  Just last week, four indigenous guards in La Chivera were wounded when they were attacked with gunfire and grenades by men who identify themselves as dissidents of the FARC. Indigenous leaders have called on the GOC to act on the issue of illicit coca, marijuana, and poppy production in the area, which they affirm is a result of the weak local markets for other crops, leaving locals with limited economic opportunities.⁶