The Minister of Defense, Guillermo Botero, emphasized that from August 7, 2018 until March 21 of this year, the homicides have decreased from 7,878 cases to 7,843, that is, a reduction of 35 cases in the country.
"We must remember that the homicides between January 1 and August 7, 2018, were growing at a rate of 6 percent per year, and before the end of the year, we managed to reduce this trend to one percent (... ) Now, from January 1 to March 21 of this year we have had 164 fewer cases compared to the same period of the previous year, that is, a reduction of 6 percent," explained Botero, who attended a debate on political control to respond to the questions about the extortion and residuals groups of the Farc in the department of Huila and other departments.
The Minister revealed that in this year the theft on people increased 9 percent with 4,528 cases, while the theft to residences has been reduced by 2,500 reported cases, the theft to commercial places decreased by 52 percent, the theft of vehicles fell by 9 percent, motorcycles 13 percent and terrorist acts decreased by 25 cases. Subversive operations fell in 3 cases, personal injuries reported a reduction of 9,016 cases, with a decrease of 27 percent and kidnapping a reduction of 12 percent.
"Every day we are giving better results as long as there are denunciations," said Botero, however he recognizes that the least satisfactory figures are in the finding of cocaine. "In this year we have found 63 tons, we should be around 100, which is the goal we have set for this first part of the year," he said.
With the shock plan 'who makes it, must pay: building security', the results have been satisfactory because to date they have achieved more than 142 thousand captures of alleged criminals, 24,214 by arrest warrant and 118,316 in flagrante delicto. In addition, 13,361 firearms have been seized, 8,931 vehicles have been recovered and the decrease in criminal activities has been 9 percent.
With regard to the ELN, from August 7, 2018 and March 25 of this year, there have been 684 impacts on this organized armed group, compared to the previous year, "it gives us a growth in impacts of 44 percent". Regarding Residual GAO, 839 impacts are reported, which implies a 192 percent increase compared to the same period in the previous year.
"Combining the 'Clan del Golfo', 'Pelusos' and 'Puntilleros' we have 1,290 impacts that represent an increase of 65 percent (...) Cases of extortion come directly from GAO’s and common criminality. So far there are 34 GAOs identified and the greatest concentration is in the Aburrá Valley. Intense work is being done to reduce this situation ".
By extortion, 128 persons have been captured and 11 by kidnapping, 5 organizations have been dismantled as well as 25 extortion groups. In flagrancy for these crimes 13 people have captured. "This is the result of having created a special command consisting of 300 men against the crime of extortion," said Botero.
Source: Ministry of National Defense
