Bogota (Reuters)-At least 34 soldiers were kidnapped by armed civilians in a jungle area in southeastern after clashes that left 11 dead guerrillas, including a FARC rebel group commander, defense minister Pedro Sanchez said on Tuesday.
The clashes occurred in a rural area of the municipality of El Returns, in the province of Guaviare, in the Southeast of the country, and involved members of the Central Staff (EMC), a group of former FARC combatants who rejected a peace agreement with the government in 2016.
Sanchez said the soldiers were taken when they were emptying the area after a military operation that killed an EMC commander and 10 other rebels.
“This is an illegal and criminal action of people in civilian costumes,” Sanchez told reporters. “It’s a kidnapping.”
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The jungle region is considered a strategic corridor for drug trafficking and is known for its extensive coca plantations, the main ingredient used to produce cocaine.
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The kidnapping occurs after a similar incident in June, when 57 soldiers were kept in captivity for two days in a mountainous region of the southwest, another stronghold of a FARC dissident faction.
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Armed groups, which are funded through drug trafficking, illegal mining and other crimes, are still present in Colombia after a six -decades conflict that left more than 450,000 dead, despite the FARC Peace Agreement, Colombia’s largest rebel group of then.
(Report by Luis Jaime Acosta)
