2023-07-04 01:14:59
The executive president of Fedegan, José Félix Lafaurie, submitted an x-rayalarming”as he described it, about the increasing cases of extortion throughout the country, of which he said, “it is a crime that ‘got out of hand’”.
In an analysis published in the journal Livestock Context, Also a member of the negotiating team of the National Government with the ELN, I cite several examples of how the “toll”, “security service”, or “revolutionary tax” in the territories, it is “pure and hard extortion”.
For example, he mentioned the case of cities like Barranquilla in which more than 200 stores have been closed for this crime, while in Sincelejo there are 300, In his opinion, a complete social and economic tragedy considering that the capital of Sucre is a medium-sized city.
He also mentioned the situation in Bogota in which in some popular neighborhoods, “The train of Aragua”, A kind of Venezuelan “Clan of the Gulf” forces merchants, on pain of death, to sell drugs and adulterated liquor, and as a bonus charges them a “security fee.”
The same happens in the Aburrá Valleywhere the “security Service” It is priced by sales,and no one is saved, not even the arepas stalls”, added.
He mentioned the coordinator of the Security and Justice initiative of the eafit universitywhich in statements to a media outlet revealed that in Medellín, each year they are put between 400 to 500 complaintswhile a 2019 survey found that ehe number of homes and businesses extorted exceeds 150,000.
Extortion is a hidden crime, due to the terror that emerges from defenselessness. If the ratio between complaint and reality were the same as in Medellín for the entire country, a rule of thumb would take us to 1,056,900 extorted as of April 2023.
— José Félix Lafaurie (@jflafaurie) July 3, 2023
“In Buenaventura they charge the boatmen to move merchandise, and on the Santa Marta-Barranquilla road there is a daily threatening checkpoint: “either you pay or the car will hurt you“, wrote.
In his column he also says that extortion operates, “with macabre specialization”in the popular sectors, on the popular economy that the current government seeks to recover.
“Recovering security first and freeing the poorest from the yoke of extortion, in addition to being a big step in that direction, would pave the way for total peace, today with the horizon clouded by unbearable insecurity.” added, among other things.
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