(Bogotá) A group of 34 soldiers have been sequestered since Friday in southern Colombia, after an operation against environmental crimes, the authorities reported on Saturday, accusing former FARC rebels.
Governor Rafaela Cortés assured that behind this kidnapping that occurred in the department of Meta are dissidents of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) who rejected the 2016 peace agreement and who are “instrumentalizing the civilian population against the forces of order,” she accused in a video on Instagram.
Authorities had earlier announced that two investigators from Colombia’s Attorney General’s Office had been kidnapped in the southwest of the country by the Central Staff (EMC), the largest faction of FARC dissidents who rejected the agreement to peace of 2016.
The two officials as well as the woman who accompanied them have been detained since Friday in a rural area of Santander de Quilichao, in the department of Cauca (southwest), and “are in good health”, the government said on Saturday. EMC.
In 2022, Colombian military intelligence estimated the EMC’s strength at around 3,500 guerrillas. The organization controls revenues from drug trafficking and illegal mining.
A truce was concluded at the end of 2023 between the EMC and the government of President Gustavo Petro, in power since August 2022, who is trying to renegotiate peace with these dissidents.
After a series of attacks against civilians and security forces, the assassination of an indigenous leader by the rebels ultimately led the government to decree on March 17 the end of the ceasefire in three departments in the south -west of the country.