New investigation

The Informants of Tibú: How the Colombian State Unleashed a Wave of Femicides

#TheInformants

Dear Reader,

InSight Crime is pleased to announce the publication of its latest investigation, "The Informants of Tibú: How the Colombian State Unleashed a Wave of Femicides."

In 2021, Tibú, a municipality in Norte de Santander, located on the border between Colombia and Venezuela, suffered one of the worst waves of gender-based violence in its history. More than a dozen women were killed, while others disappeared, and many more were threatened and displaced, after guerrillas of the National Liberation Army (Ejército de Liberación Nacional - ELN) and dissidents of the extinct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia - FARC) discovered a plan by security forces to use women to infiltrate their ranks.

InSight Crime spoke with Mar*, a woman whom the security forces tried to recruit by offering her money to become an informant. Even though she refused the offer several times, the ELN accused her of being an informant, and subsequently threatened, kidnapped, and displaced her from her home in Tibú. When Mar tried to denounce these events, the government institutions that were supposed to protect and support her in the face of the guerrillas' threats failed her.

In this investigation, InSight Crime explores how the recruitment of women, a tactic widely used by both guerrillas and armed forces throughout the Colombian conflict, left many civilian women in Tibú in the guerrillas' crosshairs. It also addresses how the authorities not only threatened and harassed those who denounced the situation, but have failed to address the consequences that these practices had on the security and gender-based violence dynamics in Tibú.

*The names of the protagonists have been changed to protect their identity.

We invite you to check out the full investigation, now available on our website.

Sincerely,

The InSight Crime Team

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