Colombia’s military has accused civilians operating under the influence of armed rebels of kidnapping 57 soldiers in the country’s conflict-ridden southwest, amid renewed instability in a region long plagued by narcotrafficking and insurgent violence.
According to Brigadier General Federico Alberto Mejía, 31 soldiers were captured on Saturday and another 26 on Sunday in the remote Micay Canyon area of Cauca Department. Speaking in a video posted on social media, Mejía described the mass seizure of troops as an act of “kidnapping,” saying those responsible were civilians pressured by dissidents of the now-disbanded Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc).
“This is called kidnapping,” Mejía stated bluntly. “They have taken four non-commissioned officers and 53 soldiers hostage.”
While no group has claimed responsibility, Colombian authorities suspect the EMC Estado Mayor Central the most powerful offshoot of the Farc of orchestrating the operation. The EMC split from the main guerrilla force after it rejected the 2016 peace deal that disarmed tens of thousands of fighters and formally ended a half-century of civil war.
Local media reports indicate that over 200 civilians participated in the abductions, allegedly under orders from EMC leaders. The group has remained silent on the matter as of Monday evening.
The Colombian government, which is currently engaged in a fragile dialogue with several armed groups including the EMC, has not yet issued a formal statement about the soldiers condition or any negotiations underway.
The Micay Canyon region, a rugged and mountainous corridor stretching through southwestern Colombia, is a critical zone for cocaine production and trafficking. The area has long served as a strategic artery for transporting drugs to Pacific ports, from where they are shipped illegally to markets in North America and Europe.
Despite the 2016 peace agreement, the vacuum left by the Farc’s demobilisation has been filled by criminal groups and rebel splinters such as the EMC, who have reasserted control over key trafficking routes and coca-growing territories.
The mass abduction marks a dramatic escalation in tensions between state forces and insurgent-linked communities, and raises new doubts over President Gustavo Petro’s controversial “Total Peace” strategy which aims to broker ceasefires and reintegrate fighters through negotiation rather than force.
Erizia Rubyjeana
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