President Juan Manuel Santos announced Nov. 22 that he has developed a plan of action to address the ongoing wave of assassinations [7] of social leaders across Colombia, calling it a necessity to secure the new peace deal [8] with the FARC rebels. "This uncertainty is increasing the risks, and therefore the urgency of taking decisions," he said, although he failed to delineate specific actions. (El Tiempo [9], Nov. 22) The announcement comes as the Marcha Patriótica [10] activist network has threatened a "National Civic Strike" if the wave of "citizen extermination" does not cease. By the group's count, the year 2016 has seen the assassination of 70 of its own leaders, with hundreds more threatened or surviving attempts on their lives. (Colombia Informa [11], Nov, 24)
Activists and rights workers maintain that surviving right-wing paramilitary networks are behind the terror wave [12], despite official denialism [13] from the government about their existence.
