/ / More than 2,000 displaced by fighting between illegal groups in southern Colombia

More than 2,000 displaced by fighting between illegal groups in southern Colombia

March 28, 2021

First modification:

According to a report by the Ombudsman’s Office, armed clashes between illegal groups forced the massive displacement of more than 2,000 people. During the fighting at least one soldier was killed. The events took place since last Friday, in the town of El Plateado, located in the department of Cauca, in the south of the country.

Waving flags and white scarves, hundreds of civilians have fled the crossfire between outlaw movements since last Friday in southern Colombia.

The armed confrontation lasted at least until Saturday afternoon, which resulted in the massive displacement of more than 2,000 people who were forced to leave everything in the village of El Plateado, in the department of Cauca.

“These events have taken place in the urban area of ​​the El Plateado corregimiento (town), with more than 6,000 people from the civilian population exposed to the use of conventional and unconventional explosive devices by illegal armed actors.”, assured the Ombudsman’s Office.

At least one soldier was killed in the attacks, and both the Ombudsman’s Office, a body dedicated to ensuring human rights in the country, and the Human Rights Watch Organization urged the Government to take action, given the precarious circumstances faced by the victims.

“They do not have enough food or water or decent shelters. We ask for assistance from the Government of Cauca and the Unit for Victims and urgent protection for the communities,” said the director for the Americas of HRW, José Miguel Vivanco.

These events are recorded after on Saturday, March 27, the Colombian authorities will accuse the FARC dissidents of setting off a car bomb in the town of Corinto, also in Cauca, which left 43 injured, including 11 public officials.

Control of drug trafficking, the main driver of violence in Colombia

Although the Government of Colombia signed a peace agreement in 2016 with the largest guerrilla, the FARC, now a political party, the dissidents of this movement, as well as other guerrillas and drug trafficking groups, continue to dispute control of areas considered strategic for illicit activities.

El Cauca is an area where there is a presence of drug traffickers, dissidents from the FARC and the guerrilla group called the National Liberation Army (ELN), who are fighting over the dominance of several areas destined for the production and trafficking of narcotics, and the transit of others. illegal products such as weapons.

A mother looking for her missing son cries during a public ceremony in Caldono, Cauca, Colombia, on March 21, 2021. Inhabitants of Caldono, who between 1997 and 2014, were victims of 248 armed actions by the FARC, demanded that the former guerrilla and the Colombian State assume their responsibility in the armed conflict and compensation for the victims. © EFE / Ernesto Guzmán Jr

The local press reported that behind the recent combats would be the ELN and the FARC dissident Carlos Patiño front, who see in this population a strategic area to access other areas of the department.

The local media ‘Revista Semana’ published a report in 2020 in which it pointed out that the dissidents are also facing each other. In this case, the Carlos Patiño front, which maintains “a blood and fire dispute with the Second Marquetalia, a structure commanded by Luciano Marín Arango, alias Iván Márquez; Seuxis Pausias Hernández Solarte, alias Jesús Santrich (leaders of the extinct FARC guerrilla and signatories of the peace agreement who later resigned); and alias El Paisa “.

Since 2019, Márquez called to return to arms and now leads part of the dissidents. Added to the economic interests for illicit businesses are the accusations against the current Colombian government, by President Iván Duque, of failing to comply with the commitments signed in the peace agreement, which would increase its disagreement and spiral of violence.

According to figures from the Institute for Development and Peace Studies (Indepaz), in 2020 310 social leaders and human rights defenders and 64 signatories of the Agreement or former FARC combatants were assassinated.

Indigenous peoples, one of the communities hardest hit by the wave of violence, demanded on Saturday both the former guerrilla and the Colombian state to assume their responsibility in the armed conflict and asked for compensation for the victims.

With EFE and local media

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source https://pledgetimes.com/more-than-2000-displaced-by-fighting-between-illegal-groups-in-southern-colombia/

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