Santos orders intervention after torture houses found in Pacific port city

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Colombia Reports

Santos orders intervention after torture houses found in Pacific port city
Mar 6, 2014 posted by Connor Paige

Colombia President Juan Manuel Santos on Tuesday said he has ordered security forces to take action in the Pacific port town of Buenaventura after the discovery of four houses meant to torture and dismember people.The order followed after months of growing complaints of horrific violence, drug trafficking and other illicit activity inflicted by criminal organizations present in the city.

Santos told Caracol Radio that “Buenaventura has become a type of laboratory for these criminal organizations, they have taken over drug trafficking routes and the business of smuggling and have displayed a type of war befitting true mafias.” Santos’ call for action came months after the United Nations called on authorities to act against the ongoing crisis in Buenaventura caused by staggering poverty levels and increasing homicides.

Chop houses

Authorities in Colombia’s largest Pacific port city said Wednesday they were able to determine the locations of the “chop houses” using forensic lights able to detect blood stains left on the walls and floors after gruesome murders and dismemberments, reported local media.

Read more: http://colombiareports.co/colombian-president-orders-intervention-public-forces-torture-houses-found-buenaventura/

[bemildred]

1. Must be getting more competitive in the drug business if they need 4 "chop houses". nt

[Judi Lynn]

2. Colombia drug gangs cut up people alive in ‘chop-up houses' – HRW

Colombia drug gangs cut up people alive in ‘chop-up houses' – HRW

Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation - Fri, 21 Mar 2014 01:06 PM

BOGOTA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - At night along the river banks of the Colombian port city of Buenaventura, residents say they can hear people scream and plea for mercy as they are cut up with chainsaws.

Gang members have been seen emerging from so-called “chop-up houses”, nestled in warrens of wooden shacks on stilts, carrying plastic bags with dismembered body parts that are thrown into the sea.

Fishermen say they have come across body parts floating in the waters of Colombia’s main port on the Pacific coast, an international shipping hub.

Buenaventura, home to 370,000 people, is a key smuggling point for cocaine being transported by sea and overland through Central America and Mexico en route to the United States, making it a hotspot for drug traffickers and criminal gangs and one of Colombia’s most violent cities.

More:
http://www.trust.org/item/20140321130623-3r9w4/