BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — A prominent human rights group said Wednesday that rebel groups in Colombia committed “grave abuses” against civilians as they fight for control of the Catatumbo, a resource-rich region along Colombia’s border with Venezuela.
In a 12-page report, Human Rights Watch accused the rebels of executing unarmed farmers and forcibly recruiting dozens of children into their ranks. The group also called on Colombia’s government to speed up investigations into homicides in Catatumbo, where at least 78 people were killed in January and February, after a truce ended between rebel groups in the area.
“Our research points to widespread abuses against ordinary people,” said Juanita Goebertus, Americas director for HRW.
According to the Colombian Human Rights Ombudsman’s Office, more than 56,000 people have been displaced from their homes in the Catatumbo region since Jan. 16, when the National Liberation Army, or ELN, launched a violent campaign to strengthen its grip on the area.
Human Rights Watch said that in some villages, the rebels dragged people out of their homes and shot those who they accused of being collaborators of a rival group known as the FARC-EMC.
Human Rights Watch interviewed 65 people for its investigation, including judicial officials, aid workers and displaced farmers.
“It seems that the ELN is trying to control the border with Venezuela, partly due to the drug trade,” said Juan Pappier, Human Rights Watch deputy director for the Americas. “And for that they’ve long benefited from the complicity of Venezuelan security forces.”
Some people who fled the Catatumbo region told Human Rights Watch that the ELN executed farmers in front of their families.
Others accused the FARC-EMC group of running forced labor camps, where local people who were accused of committing crimes were forced to cut sugar cane for more than 12 hours a day.
Human Rights Watch urged Colombia’s Attorney General's office to increase the number of prosecutors and investigators in the Catatumbo region, and to provide protection for them, so that these crimes can be further investigated.
The Colombian government suspended peace talks with the ELN on Jan. 20, after news emerged of the ELN’s attacks on several villages in Catatumbo.
President Gustavo Petro, who was a member of a rebel group during his youth, has accused the ELN’s leadership of becoming “greedy” drug traffickers and of abandoning their revolutionary ideals.
Violence decreased in Colombia following a 2016 peace deal with the nation’s largest rebel group, FARC, in which more than 13,000 fighters laid down their weapons.
But some isolated areas, including the Catatumbo region, have seen an uptick in homicides, extorsion and forced displacement, as smaller groups fight for control of territories abandoned by the FARC.
The National Liberation Army, has an estimated 6,000 fighters in Venezuela and Colombia, according to Colombia’s Ministry of Defense.
Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
FILE - Residents of the Catatumbo coca-growing region camp at Bolivar Square in Bogota, Colombia, after traveling to the capital to request a meeting with President Gustavo Petro, Jan. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The top vaccine official with the Food and Drug Administration has resigned and criticized the nation’s top health official for allowing “misinformation and lies” to guide his thinking behind the safety of vaccinations.
Dr. Peter Marks sent a letter to Acting FDA Commissioner Sara Brenner on Friday saying that he would resign and retire by April 5 as director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.
In his letter, which was obtained by The Associated Press, Marks said he was “willing to work” to address the concerns expressed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., about the safety of vaccinations. But he concluded that wasn't possible.
“It has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the Secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies,” he wrote.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to a request for comment.
Marks was offered the choice of resigning or being fired by Kennedy, according to a former FDA official familiar with the discussions, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he didn’t have permission to discuss the matter publicly.
Kennedy has a long history of spreading anti-vaccine misinformation, although during his Senate confirmation hearings he seemed to say he would not undermine vaccines. He promised the chair of the Senate health committee that he would not change existing vaccine recommendations.
Since becoming commissioner, Kennedy has vowed to scrutinize the safety of childhood vaccinations, despite decades of evidence they are safe and have saved millions of lives.
Marks oversaw the agency’s rapid review and approval of COVID-19 vaccines and treatments during the pandemic.
Marks is credited with coining the name and concept for “Operation Warp Speed,” the effort under President Donald Trump to rapidly manufacture vaccines while they were still being tested for safety and efficacy. The initiative cut years off the normal development process.
Despite the project’s success, Trump repeatedly lashed out at the FDA for not approving the first COVID shots even sooner. Trump told confidants after his 2020 loss that he would have been re-elected if the vaccine had been available before Election Day.
Dr. Paul Offit, a vaccine expert at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, criticized what he called the “firing” of Marks.
“RFK Jr.’s firing of Peter Marks because he wouldn’t bend a knee to his misinformation campaign now allows the fox to guard the hen house," Offit said. “It’s a sad day for America’s children.”
Former FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf said the issues raised in Marks' resignation letter “should be frightening to anyone committed to the importance of evidence to guide policies and patient decisions.”
“I hope this will intensify the communication across academia, industry and government to bolster the importance of science and evidence,” he wrote.
The resignation follows news Friday that HHS plans to lay off 10,000 workers and shut down entire agencies, including ones that oversee billions of dollars in funds for addiction services and community health centers across the country.
In a post on social media Thursday, Kennedy criticized the department he oversees as an inefficient “sprawling bureaucracy." He also faulted the department’s 82,000 workers for a decline in Americans’ health.
The resignation is the latest blow to the beleaguered health agency, which has been rocked for weeks by layoffs, retirements and a chaotic return-to-office process that left many staffers without permanent offices, desks or other supplies. Last month, Jim Jones, the FDA’s deputy commissioner for foods, resigned, citing “the indiscriminate firing” of nearly 90 staffers in his division, according to a copy of his resignation letter obtained by the AP.
Marks, who could not be reached for comment, also raised concerns in his letter about “efforts currently being advanced by some on the adverse health effects of vaccination are concerning” as well as the “unprecedented assault on scientific truth that has adversely impacted public health in our nation.”
He went on to detail the historic benefits of vaccinations dating back to George Washington and pointed to the ongoing measles outbreak as proof of what can happen when doubts about science take hold.
“The ongoing multistate measles outbreak that is particularly severe in Texas reminds us of what happens when confidence in well-established science underlying public health and well-being is undermined,” he wrote.
The measles outbreak, which could go on for months, has now spread to Kansas and Ohio after sickening more than 370 in Texas and New Mexico.
If it hits other unvaccinated communities across the U.S., as may now be the case in Kansas, the outbreak could endure for a year and threaten the nation’s status as having eliminated the local spread of the vaccine-preventable disease, public health experts said.
Casey reported from Boston. Perrone reported from Washington, D.C.
FILE - Dr. Peter Marks, Director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research within the Food and Drug Administration testifies during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions hearing to examine an update from Federal officials on efforts to combat COVID-19, Tuesday, May 11, 2021 on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Jim Lo Scalzo/Pool via AP, File)
