CCPR/C/114/D/2134/2012 Movimiento de Renovación Nacional (National Renewal Movement), which was later outlawed. From the mid-1980s onwards, the paramilitary groups grew in the region and stepped up their criminal activities against the civilian population, turning the Middle Magdalena region into the paramilitary hub of Colombia. The Inter -American Court of Human Rights stated that “in the 1980s, it was well known that the goals of many ‘self-defense groups’ changed and they became criminal groups, usually known as ‘paramilitary groups’. They operated, above all, in the Magdalena Medio region and gradually extended to other regions of the country.” 4 2.19 The authors indicate that, in the 1990s, there was a drive to create private armed groups through the enactment of legislation such as Decree No. 356 of 1994, which opened the way for private agents to be equipped with restricted-use firearms. In 1995, the Office of the Superintendent of Private Security and Surveillance issued a decision establishing special private security and surveillance services, known as Convivir (Living Together) groups, through which paramilitary activities were developed and expanded as a clear policy of the State. 5 2.20 The Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances has identified paramilitary groups as having been the main perpetrators of enforced disappearan ces in Colombia since 1988, acting with the complicity or the passive acquiescence of the security forces (E/CN.4/1989/18/Add.1, para. 126). 2.21 According to data from the Regional Office of the Attorney General in Antioquia, between June 1995 and June 1996, 348 allegations of enforced disappearance were made in the region. This prompted the People ’s Training Institute in Antioquia to conclude that enforced disappearance is a repressive measure commonly used in Antioquia by certain groups or members of the security forces and parastatal bodies to cause anxiety among populations in areas particularly affected by armed conflict and require the community to take sides, which obliges the civilian population to become actively involved in the conflict. 6 2.22 The authors point out that there were numerous reports about Autodefensas Campesinas del Magdalena Medio operating with the acquiescence of the Colombian army (Infantry Battalion No. 42 of the Fourteenth Brigade) in the Middle Magdalena region, specifically on the road from Medellín to Bogotá, along which the disappeared relatives were travelling. According to the accounts of campesino farmers living in the area, the army battalions present in the area supported Autodefensas Campesinas del Magdalena Medio by providing it with weapons, training and cover. 7 The complaint 3.1 The authors claim that there has been a violation of article 2, paragraph 3, of the Covenant, inasmuch as, despite the complaints lodged with the police and the public __________________ 4 5 6 7 6/20 captured Luis Antonio Meneses Báez, a former army officer who had helped create the paramilitary organization based in Puerto Boyacá in the Middle Magdalena region, which operated under cover of ACDEGAM and was responsible for widespread abuses against the civilian population, including numerous killings and disappearances. In his sworn statement before the Directorate of Judicial and Investigatory Police, Luis Antonio Meneses declared that the groups had been created on the orders of army high command, were an integral part of the Government’s counter-insurgency strategy and were controlled by the S-2 intelligence unit of the Bárbula Battalion and by ACDEGAM. Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Case of the 19 Merchants v. Colombia, judgement of 5 July 2004, series C, No. 109, para. 84 (c). Database of human rights and political violence, Research and Popular Education Centre (CINEP), Deuda con la humanidad: Paramilitarismo de Estado en Colombia , 1988-2003, p. 258. People’s Training Institute, ¿Hacia dónde va Colombia? Una mirada desde Antioquia, Medellín, May 1997, pp. 132-135. Report of the Colombia section of the Andean Commission of Jurists, Nordeste Antioqueño y Magdalena Medio, Bogotá, 1993, p. 106. GE.15-15601