Senator in Intensive Care Shows Colombia Spinning Out of Control
Last Thursday, presidential hopeful Miguel Uribe Turbay warned that Colombia was fast sinking back into its violent past. Two days later, a gunman shot him in the head during a rally.
The 39-year-old opposition senator is now fighting for his life in a Bogota hospital, while prosecutors try to find out who may have ordered the teenage suspect to pull the trigger.
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Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Europe tried to crack down on people smugglers. It only made them stronger
The pale yellow house, guarded by a grey gate, blends into the quiet street in one of Belgrade's leafy neighbourhoods. It was here in late May, however, that a migrant was allegedly stabbed to death and found in a pool of blood, witness accounts suggest. 'I'm scared,' a woman living next door tells The Telegraph. 'There was a lot of blood.' The following day, a shoot-out erupted between people smugglers and police further west in a town near Serbia's border with Croatia, leaving one migrant dead. Violence linked to organised immigration crime is on the rise in Serbia and countries along the Western Balkans route that migrants – aided by smugglers – take to travel to Western Europe, where many hope to be granted asylum. 'This is something that's really escalating very, very quickly,' said Milica Svabic, a lawyer with KlikAktiv, a Belgrade-based NGO that provides legal and humanitarian assistance to migrants and refugees. 'Different smuggling groups are fighting over territory, over clients, over money.' Experts say the spate of violence shows how Europe's tighter border controls and anti-smuggling policies are backfiring. Rather than disrupting the gangs, the approach has strengthened the groups and made them more profitable, as migrants are more reliant than ever on smugglers to facilitate their journeys. Smugglers based in Turkey who send people on this route have told The Telegraph that stronger border enforcement simply creates greater demand for their services – all they need to do is adapt their methods. This is happening even as Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, and David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, continue their pledge to tackle illegal migration and 'smash the gangs' by funding foreign law enforcement. They have prioritised the Balkans, visiting Serbia, Albania and Kosovo in recent months to boost co-operation to resolve the escalating immigration crisis. Serbia is not part of the European Union, though the nation borders four countries in the bloc – Croatia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria – making it a geographic hotspot for irregular border crossings. Scrutiny has grown over this route as it's popular with Afghans and Syrians, the top two nationalities arriving in the UK via small boats last year, according to data from the United Nations and the British Government. The 'presence of Frontex [the EU's border force] only increased the prices of smuggling and pushed people toward smugglers', said Ms Svabic. 'They turn to smugglers, and smugglers provide private accommodation, transportation – everything.' Smugglers are charging exponential prices – up to €15,000 (£12,635) to transit from Turkey to Germany and France, with an additional few thousand to cross the English Channel onward to the UK's shores. A place to stay, as arranged by smugglers, costs about €11 a night, which comes on top of steep crossing costs. That's a far cry from prices in 2016, when smugglers charged a few hundred euros for each border crossing during the peak of the migration crisis, driven partly by Syria's civil war. At the time, migrants could cross on their own by using GPS and public transport, guided by relatives who had taken the same journeys earlier. It was also easier to apply for asylum and stay in official camps, which allowed access to different services, protection and information. However, neither are now possible. Many migrant reception centres have closed in transit countries, which have fallen under significant political pressure from the UK and EU to stem the flow of people. Serbia, for instance, has shut all but six camps. And smuggling groups now control different sections of the border and won't allow people to pass without paying. Migrants must use smugglers for every step: a place to stay, transportation to border areas, crossing the border itself, as well as a way to move through the next country. This makes them 'invisible… [and] very vulnerable', particularly if they're hidden in private accommodation, said Ms Svabic. 'Even a small fight, an incident with the smuggler, can end with a fatal outcome.' This is what many fear may have happened in Surcin, the neighbourhood of Belgrade, where a dead migrant was discovered in a pool of blood in a flat that had been advertised online for short-term rentals, though police are still investigating. The Telegraph encountered smugglers and migrants at one such hideout in the far outskirts of Belgrade, where smuggling-gang shootings have occurred as recently as April. Migrants stay in the upper floors of a large multi-storey shop selling clothing and toys, run by Chinese immigrants who arrived about eight years ago. Near the entrance, a sign written in Pashto – a language spoken in Afghanistan – reminded people not to loiter by the front. Here, two Afghan teenagers, both 16, were sheltering and spoke in muted tones as a smuggler hovered nearby. They'd escaped Afghanistan nearly three years ago after the Taliban returned to power, spending €9,500 in that time to travel more than 4,000 miles – much of it on foot – from home all the way to Serbia. 'That was not a bad price; some 'games' are now €8,000 to go from Afghanistan to Turkey,' said Mohammad, who declined to give his real name out of fear of retribution, and used slang to refer to irregular border crossings. Both boys had a long stopover of about a year in Turkey, working odd jobs, including as shepherds, before moving onward to the north-west of the country, crossing on land into Bulgaria, walking in secret across the country over 15 days, before finally arriving in Serbia. 'We hope to get to Germany, but if we are caught before that and forced to register our fingerprints in another country in the EU, then we will try to go to the UK,' said Mohammad. Brexit has made the UK more appealing for refugees as they cannot be sent back to other European countries under EU legislation. With the growing power of people smugglers, some migrants and NGOs fear the violence they face will continue to intensify, further victimising them. BWK, an Afghan gang operating in Serbia and Bosnia, has been kidnapping migrants at gunpoint and torturing them to demand ransoms of up to €10,000 from their families at home as a condition for release. One BWK member was arrested last year on suspicion of being involved in the targeting of migrants. The case is ongoing, according to the prosecutor's office in Bosnia. The gang may extend to or have followers in the UK, as various social media posts with the BWK tag have cropped up online, including one showing a masked man standing atop a British police car. Credit: TikTok/@ In the long run, it will become even more challenging to police the gangs, as smuggling operations move further underground to evade detection. Smugglers working in this region, for instance, communicate over encrypted apps such as Signal and Telegram. They know the border areas well, too, noting where cameras, drones and dogs might be stationed. They also 'maintain distance from their customers via the use of intermediaries to avoid detection', according to a report about the Western Balkans route by the Mixed Migration Centre (MMC), a research organisation. The smugglers are sending smaller groups across on more covert routes – moving people only at night and getting over border fences with ladders, removing a section, or even digging underneath. In some cases, they are forcing migrants into riskier options – hiding people in concealed compartments in vehicles, or making them take drugs to move faster to avoid being caught. Sometimes, migrants are being transported along with weapons and ammunition, according to the MMC's findings. The dangers of such clandestine crossings are evidenced by the many unmarked graves that dot Serbia's borderlands, including in the sleepy town of Loznica, where many people have drowned in the fast-flowing Drina River demarcating much of the dividing line to Bosnia. 'NN,' read small wooden stakes in a local cemetery, to signify 'nomen nescio', Latin for 'I do not know the name.' One marks the grave of an infant who died last year. Controls on the Western Balkans route have been touted as a success – Frontex data show a 78 per cent drop in irregular crossings into the EU last year. It's clear, however, that the route remains active. Experts have highlighted that the data cannot capture full activity, as not all migrants will encounter the authorities and thus won't be reflected in the numbers. In addition, there are 'increased incentives for governments in the region to underplay the arrival figures, as evidence that considerable investments in border security were working'. Migrants, too, have indicated that they'll continue transiting through the Balkans, as they have no option but to escape unstable situations at home of war, persecution and famine. 'Nobody enjoys being in a situation like this,' said Farid, 25, a former police officer, who was forced to flee after the government was ousted when the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan. His feet were covered in cuts and bruises from weeks of travel, often on foot, all led by a smuggler. 'But I don't have another choice, I have to go.' Additional reporting by Javid Khan Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Associated Press
an hour ago
- Associated Press
Samoa to hold snap election on Aug. 29 after PM's government collapses
NEWCASTLE, Australia (AP) — Samoa will head to the polls on Aug. 29, a half-year earlier than expected, after Prime Minister Fiamē Naomi Mata'afa's government collapsed following a budget defeat in parliament late last month. Fiamē, who became the South Pacific island nation's first female prime minister in 2021 and ended four decades of Human Rights Protection Party rule, now faces a three-way political battle that has ramifications far beyond Samoa. The snap election comes at a time of heightened geopolitical interest in the South Pacific, with Samoa viewed as a strategic player in the growing contest for regional influence between China and traditional partners like Australia and the United States. Climate change is also seen as an existential threat for the Samoan archipelago, which has a population of 200,000 people, and is among the world's most imperiled by rising seas. Fiamē's FAST government fractured earlier this year after she fired party chairman La'auli Leuatea Polataivao from the cabinet over criminal charges. The move triggered a party split. Though Fiamē survived two no-confidence votes, a combined effort by HRPP and FAST defectors to block her budget forced the early election. Fiamē now leads the newly formed Samoa Uniting Party, facing off against her former boss Tuila'epa Sa'ilele Malielegaoi's HRPP and La'auli's rebranded FAST. The Head of State, Tuimalealiifano Sualauvi Vaaletoa II, formally announced the election date on Tuesday, after the country's Supreme Court rejected a bid to allow more time for preparations.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
‘The cartels and clans are ecstatic': How USAID cuts have emboldened Colombia's narcos
US cuts to international aid spending have put Colombia's counter-narcotics operations 'on ice' – a development that experts warn will reenergise the country's notorious cartels. For decades, the US has supported Colombia in its fight against drug trafficking and armed groups through aid spending. Since helping to end the reign of infamous drug lord Pablo Escobar in the 1990s, US defence and intelligence agencies have been instrumental in the country's counter-narcotic operations. Washington has also been instrumental in helping demobilise the leftist FARC rebels since the 2016 peace accord, ushering in a period of relative stability. But now, following the Trump administration's freeze of nearly all funding for the US Agency for International Development (USAID), along with changes to US State Department spending, analysts and civil society leaders are sounding the alarm. 'The groups that operate outside of the law – the cartels and the clans – are happy. They're ecstatic, because now they have the freedom to do whatever they want,' said León Valencia, director of the Bogotá-based Peace and Reconciliation Foundation. The US State Department has funded major counternarcotics operations in Colombia for years, but when president Donald Trump froze State Department spending in January, the vast majority were immediately halted. 'The entire fleet of Black Hawk helicopters was basically grounded; police units supported and trained by the US were disbanded; and programmes that were building capacity to investigate cases were all just put on ice,' said Elizabeth Dickinson, an analyst at the International Crisis Group. 'It had really wild effects.' Although most of these programmes have resumed under provisional 30-day waivers, Ms Dickinson warned that activities beyond daily maintenance are limited. 'Imagine the uncertainty that comes from knowing that you only have 30 days of funding guaranteed. Anything that's beyond the day-to-day treading water in these counter-narcotic operations is essentially on pause,' she said. 'They're not investing in new programmes, or undertaking new investigations.' The USAID cuts have also been 'catastrophic,' Ms Dickinson, and a dozen other experts and civil society leaders, told The Telegraph. In recent years, Colombia received around $440 million annually in USAID assistance for more than 80 programmes, making it the largest recipient of the agency's funds in the western hemisphere, according to US government data. While most of the programmes are not directly related to counter-narcotics, USAID-backed initiatives have helped stabilise regions still affected by armed conflict. They have created opportunities for young people at risk of recruitment by criminal gangs, supported farmers transitioning away from coca cultivation and aided the reintegration of former combatants into society. Now that funding has ceased. Ms Dickinson said that overnight the humanitarian system here in Colombia lost 70 per cent of its financing. An official, speaking on condition of anonymity due to fear of reprisals, said that more than 50 USAID-funded programmes across the country have already been shuttered. 'It has had a big and deep effect in the most vulnerable territories,' he said. 'You can't imagine the terrible effects happening there.' Officials warn the cuts also endanger the implementation of the peace accord with the leftist FARC rebels. FARC fought the government for more than five decades before most rebels laid down their weapons in 2016. While the deal did not end the conflict entirely, it ushered in a fragile peace. Between 2017 and 2023, the US provided $1.5 billion in support of the deal. 'I think it will create more risk of violence and more vulnerability,' said Luis Gilberto Murillo, Colombia's former foreign minister and current lawmaker, in an interview with Reuters. Colombia's conflict began in the 1960s amid demands for land reform, with rebels promising to redistribute land and wealth concentrated among a small elite. As part of the 2016 accord, the government pledged to grant formal ownership to poor farmers willing to stop cultivating coca. Since then, the funding has helped the government map millions of acres in conflict-afflicted territories. But that work is now on hold, according to an anonymous source within the USAID land programme. 'In terms of drug policy, we managed to positively impact the issue from a territorial, transformational perspective,' he said. 'If farmers own their land, they hardly want to risk losing it by planting illicit crops, and if it's done on a massive scale, it becomes more sustainable in the fight against this phenomenon.' Mr Valencia added that the funding cuts have 'rendered it impossible to fulfil the peace agreement,' while Ms Dickinson said there is 'no one who will step into this gap', meaning key parts of the deal 'will not be implemented'. The cuts also come amid a surge in violence between armed groups, which saw tens of thousands of people displaced earlier this year and left more than 100 dead. Colombia is currently grappling with eight separate armed conflicts, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which recently described the situation as its worst humanitarian crisis since the 2016 peace accord. Overall, the 60-year conflict has killed at least 450,000 people; cocaine production and trafficking remain the main drivers of the ongoing violence. But others argue that the US should not be funding programmes or public employees in Colombia at all. 'Trump is right,' President Gustavo Petro said in a televised address earlier this year, where he also characterised US foreign aid as poison. 'Take your money.' Some also question whether the cuts will meaningfully impact drug trafficking, arguing that the US-led war on drugs has already failed, with consumption and cultivation at record highs. Isabel Pereira, a drug policy expert at Colombia-based research organisation DeJusticia, said that such programmes 'will never be enough' to stop drug trafficking. 'Coca as a cash crop will always be more profitable than any other crop,' she said. If the programmes had been successful, she argued, 'we wouldn't be in a situation today where we are at the highest number of hectares grown in Colombia.' 'I don't think it will have much of a differential effect because the fact of the matter is that the drug markets are always thriving,' Ms Pereira added. Although the high profile excesses associated with narcos like Mr Escobar are less prominent. Coca cultivation in Colombia has quadrupled over the last decade, while global cocaine production doubled. Drug use has also grown steadily, with the UN noting in 2024 that 292 million people worldwide reported having consumed narcotics in the previous year. The Colombian government, led by the country's first leftist president, Mr Petro, has already acted to reform drug policy. In October 2023, it launched a new national drug policy that aims to shift the narrative around psychoactive substances – focusing on rural development, reducing coca crops, and helping small farmers transition to the legal economy. In February, Mr Petro said that cocaine is 'not worse than whisky' and said that, like whisky, it should be legalised. 'If somebody wants peace, the business [of drug trafficking] has to be dismantled,' Mr Petro said. 'It could be easily dismantled if they legalised cocaine in the world. It would be sold like wine.' In March, Colombia went further, leading a landmark resolution at the UN commission on narcotic drugs, calling for reforms to the existing 60-year-old drug control system. 'The global drug regime has failed to deliver, period,' said Laura Gil, Colombia's ambassador-at-large for global drug policy, speaking on the sidelines of the Harm Reduction International conference. 'In my country, it has meant the fuelling of the internal armed conflict, it has meant thousands of deaths, and it has meant the stigma we carry as Colombians all over the world.' Catherine Cook of Harm Reduction International said US funding had long given Washington an 'element of control' over Colombia's drug policy. 'This is a moment for countries to be able to take back control and decide what they want to prioritise,' she said. Ms Dickinson agreed that drug policies have caused a 'very perverse fallout', but warned that cutting funding overnight 'empowers the criminal groups who are profiting from this business.' The USAID land programme source also acknowledged that 'not everything was perfect with USAID,' but countered that, on balance, 'more good' happened than bad. Mr Valencia, meanwhile, argued that the US's abrupt decision, if nothing else, amounted to a betrayal of its responsibilities. 'The US operation is an obligation. It is not a gift – the US is the main party responsible for consumption and the persecution of our poorest people,' he said. 'These funding cuts hurt efforts to repress trafficking, and the growers that no longer have support from the programmes. They are waiving all liability, and it is a great injustice.' Protect yourself and your family by learning more about Global Health Security Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
