A group of 33 Colombian soldiers were freed Thursday after being held captive for three days in a southeastern Amazonian community home to drug crops and dissident guerrillas, the country's Ombudsman's office said.
After the soldiers engaged in fierce clashes with the guerrillas on Monday, local villagers blocked roads to prevent the departure of the troops – an act that the leftist government of Gustavo Petro deemed a kidnapping.
"At this moment, soldiers are withdrawing from the village Nueva York" in the Guaviare province, Iris Marin, head of the Ombudsman's office, said on X.
"We urge people not to stigmatise the community," Marin added.
Delegations from the government, the Ombudsman's office and the United Nations mediated the release of the soldiers.
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The authorities initially reported that 34 soldiers had been detained, but later revised the number down to 33.
Defense Minister Pedro Sánchez on Monday said the villagers holding the soldiers captive were demanding the return of a slain rebel’s body, which was transported to a morgue in the provincial capital.
The area is considered a strategic corridor for drug trafficking and is known for its extensive coca crops, the raw material used to make cocaine.
The mass detention of troops has become commonplace in southern Colombia.
According to the government, such detentions are often carried out by local people who are being manipulated by armed groups in areas where there is little state presence.
The clashes between the soldiers and armed rebels led by warlord Ivan Mordisco began on Sunday, leaving 10 dead.
The defence ministry said on social media that it had filed a complaint about the kidnapping to the public prosecutor's office.
The army sent in "more troops to prevent any attacks in this hostile environment" where the local population "is being manipulated" by the rebels, according to a statement from military commander Admiral Francisco Cubides.
Colombia has struggled to maintain security in some rural areas, where drug gangs and rebel groups are fighting over territory abandoned by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the guerilla group that made peace with the government in 2016.
Last week, another group under Mordisco's command detonated a truck bomb that killed six people and wounded more than 60 in the southwestern city of Cali.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
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