A horde of peasants murdered a policeman and kidnapped 79 during a violent strike in a hamlet in Caquetá, in the south of the country.
Although they had been protesting for a month and a half against the Chinese oil company Emerald Energy, on Thursday morning (noon in Spain) they broke into the facilities and destroyed everything in their path. The riot police contingent, made up of some 90 uniformed officers, was useless, unable to confront a crowd of more than a thousand elements.
They not only overwhelmed them, they also stabbed to death an agent, who they had caught. Then they surrounded their colleagues and kidnapped 79 of them, along with nine employees of that company.
The disorders were led by the so-called Peasant Guard, a legal body that exists in some remote areas of the country. But its strings, as in the case of Los Pozos, are moved by the FARC-EP.
The guerrilla forced peasants from countless villages in the region to move to the point of protest, and businessmen and ranchers, to pay an amount to cover expenses.
The communities in the area where Emerald Energy operates consider that, despite the thousand jobs and 20 years of oil exploitation, they have not seen progress in their remote towns and they ask for a million dollars a year for different local associations and the paving of 42 kilometers of a dirt road.
President Gustavo Petro sent several of his ministers and the police leadership to the area to obtain the release of the hostages and agree on a way out of the conflict.
One of the aspects that has outraged Colombia is the cry for help from the riot police to send them reinforcements. The recordings of the police clamoring that they not be left to their fate, had no echo.
It should be remembered that the Government of Gustavo Petro promised in the campaign to eliminate the ESMAD (riot control) and, although it did not do so completely, it took away their powers and means of defense.
President Petro published a trill this Friday morning before his Defense Minister's trip to the area. "The unilateral release of the police and the protection of their integrity is essential for the Government," he wrote. But this newspaper knows the discontent that exists in the institution because they feel abandoned by the Executive and the holder of the portfolio.
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