US EditionColombia says villagers taking orders from rebel groups kidnapped 34 soldiers
The kidnapping followed clashes that killed 11 guerrillas, including a dissident commander, highlighting ongoing conflict with FARC dissident factions rejecting the 2016 peace deal.
- On Tuesday, Defense Minister Pedro Sanchez said 34 soldiers were captured in the jungle south of Colombia, specifically in Guaviare province.
- The operation was driven by dissident FARC factions that reject the 2016 peace deal and include the Central General Staff , funding themselves through drug trafficking and coca crops.
- Sanchez said the soldiers were captured by 'individuals dressed in civilian clothes' while evacuating after an operation that killed an EMC commander and ten rebels, during a Sunday battle that hit two aircraft of public forces.
- The military said it avoided using force because it fears harming unarmed civilians, and troops in the area are often detained by local civilians acting under guerrilla orders and usually released after a few days.
- The abduction follows a June incident when 57 soldiers were held captive for two days amid Colombia's six-decade conflict that has left over 450,000 dead.
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59 Articles
Bogotá. Colombia’s Defense Minister, Pedro Sánchez, yesterday denounced the “kidnapping” of 34 special operations military personnel in a community in the south-east of the country, where dissidences of the extinct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) prevail.
In Colombia, fighting and tensions with FARC dissident groups continue. On Tuesday, 26 August, the Minister of Defence confirmed that 34 soldiers were taken hostage in the Guaviare region of the southern part of the country. Civilians manipulated by a group of FARC dissidents are said to be the cause of the attack. Colombia is experiencing its worst crisis of violence in a decade.
At least 34 soldiers were abducted by armed civilians in a jungle area of southeastern Colombia after fighting in which 11 guerrillas were killed, including a commander of a dissident faction of the former FARC guerrilla group, Defense Minister Pedro Sánchez reported Tuesday. The clashes in which the leader of the Central General Staff (EMC), a faction of the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) that rejected a 2016 peace agreem…
The criminal is the one most wanted by the Criminal Investigation Directorate and Interpol in the department
The Ministry of Defence described the act as a “serious violation of human rights” of the military personnel involved in an operation against dissent led by alias Ivan Mordisco.
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