U.N. states Organized Crime Biggest Security Threat to Colombia

Thomson Reuters Foundation reported – 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. Read Article