(Bogotá) The 34 soldiers sequestered since Friday in southern Colombia after an operation against environmental crimes were released on Saturday, the army announced.
“A commission from the UN and the Office of the Ombudsman went to the village of Alto Caño Cafra to engage in dialogue with the community and the 34 soldiers were subsequently released,” the army said in a statement. , specifying that the soldiers “are in good health and have all their equipment and materials”.
A little earlier, Governor Rafaela Cortés assured that behind this kidnapping in the department of Meta are dissidents from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) who rejected the 2016 peace agreement and who are “instrumentalizing the population civil against the police,” she accused in a video on Instagram.
The authorities have not detailed the circumstances in which the soldiers were kidnapped, and an investigation is underway.
“Military forces will maintain their operational deployment in this area, with the aim of continuing to guarantee biodiversity, security and the well-being of communities,” the Colombian army said.
Authorities announced on Saturday 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.
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.