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Homicide and kidnapping 1999

Homicide levels were undoubtedly high (24,081 people were murdered in 1999, at a rate of 58 per thousand inhabitants). According to National Police figures, while homicides increased by 4%, multiple homicides (four or more victims in a single episode, according to the same source’s definition) increased by 36%. The number of victims of massacres (three or more people killed in a single episode, according to the Office of the People’s Advocate) increased by the same proportion (it went from 1,366 to 1,863). At the same time, although figures from the Permanent Committee for the Defense of Human Rights -they use the four or more victims criterion- would show that the level of violent deaths remained the same, this would still confirm the gravity of the situation.

The high number of homicides in 1998 and 1999, particularly murders in massacres, reflects the escalation of violence of self-defense groups and guerrillas against the civilian population. It is important to note that, while the Office of the People’s Advocate imputes 37% of murders in massacres to self-defense groups, according to the CINEP-Justice and Peace’s figures the percentage would be 53% (850 murders committed by self-defense groups, out of a total of 1,594 homicides until September 1999)1.

National Army figures show that 45% of civilians murdered were killed out of combat, in attacks carried out by self-defense groups. However, the guerrillas have also gone on the offensive against the civilian population. They are responsible for 17% of deaths in massacres, according to the Office of the People’s Advocate. The Army, for its part, blames subversives for 55% of murders of civilians, if we base our calculation on this source’s figure of 1,651 victims in the whole year. All this happened against a backdrop of intensification of the armed confrontation. The number of guerrillas killed went from 739 to 1,079, while the number of Army casualties went down from 451 to 358. This means great human cost for both sides.

Kidnapping also increased significantly. According to the National Police, there were 2,663 kidnappings in 1999, the highest figure since 1991. To the NGO Free Country (“País Libre”) the increase was one of 38%; it went from 2,216 people kidnapped in 1998 to 2,945 in 1999. In the view of the Program for the Defense of Personal Liberty there was a slight increase in 1999 with respect to the previous year, from 2,904 to 3,006 kidnappings, including simple kidnappings, which are not taken into account in National Police figures. It is important to highlight the fact that kidnapping and extortion for economic ends went up by 16% (2,010, the highest figure for this kind of crime in the past four years; last year the figure was 1,611). Kidnaping and extortion for political ends also went up from 340 to 422. This situation reflects, above all, the action of guerrillas. The overall kidnapping figures show an increase in the practice of multiple kidnappings, the so called “Pescas Milagrosas”, or illegal roadblocks set up to pick civilians to extort money from them. It is a very peculiar way of mixing economic and political aims.

1 Including murders of people protected by International Humanitarian Law and victims of social and political violence.