The soldiers responsible for eradicating plantations were retained since Tuesday. Producers are asking the government to meet its commitments as part of a program to replace coca leaves with lawful agriculture.
Le Monde with AFP
Was it a kidnapping, a hostage plug? Difficult to precisely define the situation, but the approximately 180 soldiers responsible for eradicating coca plantations and selected since Tuesday by disgruntled farmers, in eastern Colombia, were finally released, announced, Thursday, October 28.
There was “a unilateral initiative of the communities withdrew from the area and do not enter the work of the security forces,” said July 28, the Office of the People’s Defender in a statement .
The public body that ensures respect for human rights in the country, had announced earlier the sending of a mediation mission to the Municipality of Tibu (Northeastern Country), in the Norte Department of Santander, where the soldiers were selected from Tuesday in a school.
“No form of violence”
Farmers left the school’s website, found journalists from the France-Presse agency. “The army has not been a victim of any form of violence or kidnapping,” the farmers said in a statement.
The President of the Republic of Colombia, Ivan Duque, had claimed the “rapid release” of the military earlier. “They are well, they are with their weapons. They did not want to engage in the confrontation and it shows their professionalism (…), but these practices can not be coursing in the country,” said the head of the State in front of the press. “If there is no quick release, this will be considered a kidnapping by all the authorities,” he warned.
The clashes are common in Colombia between Coca producers and order forces responsible for destroying these cultures.
General Omar Sepulveda, in charge of military operations in the area, had indicated that the soldiers had been surrounded on Tuesday by armed growers of sticks and machetes while they carried out “tasks to fight against all The Drug Traffic Chain “.
Largest world cocaine exporter
The spokesperson for an association of farmers, which has been identified as “junior”, told a local radio to be in “the best arrangements to engage a dialogue”. According to him, Coca farmers intend to protest against the government, which would not have complied with its commitments as part of a program to replace the cultivation of coca leaves with lawful agriculture.
The Catatumbo region, where the village of Tibu is located on the border with Venezuela, contains the largest concentration of Coca culture in the world (40,084 hectares), according to the last United Nations report in 2020.
The rebels of the National Liberation Army, the latest active guerrilla in Colombia, and the dissidents of the ex-guerrilla of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia opposed to the 2016 Peace Agreement, operate in this region and benefit from the income from drug trafficking.
With record production of 1,010 tonnes in 2020, Colombia remains the world’s largest exporter of cocaine, mainly to the United States, main consumer.