The mayor of Rosa (southwest), Jose Roberto Campo, appealed for the release of his son, who was abducted on Friday by gunmen in a rural area of Colombia through which drug trafficking routes pass.
The mayor of Rosa (southwest), Jose Roberto Campo, appealed for the release of his son, who was abducted on Friday by gunmen in a rural area of Colombia through which drug trafficking routes pass.
“I respectfully appeal to the organization holding my son: to respect his life, to send him home as soon as possible,” the elected official told Noticias Caracol television.
Jose Ricardo Arcilla, the chief of police in Cauca, the county where Rosas falls, said Wilmer Campo, the mayor’s son, was selling animals on a street in La Florida when “armed men arrived, threatened him and kidnapped him.”
According to the press, the hostage is 31 years old. The identity and motives of the kidnappers are unknown, according to Mr. Arcila.
Cauca County is criss-crossed by drug-trafficking routes, the Colombian cocaine that is transported to Central America and Mexico. Several of them are controlled by dissidents from the former FARC rebel group, with whom the government of President Gustavo Petros declared a mutual ceasefire on December 31, 2022.
The deal was suspended by authorities in four southern counties after the killing of four indigenous minors attributed to the rebels. However, in theory it is still applied in Cauca.
The National Liberation Army (ELN), officially the last rebel organization continuing the armed struggle, is also active in the region. Although it was announced on July 6 that both the group and the army were suspending offensive operations, in view of a mutual ceasefire from August 3, the kidnappings have not stopped. Recently, insurgents kidnapped a non-commissioned officer, before releasing her and her two minor sons a few days later.
Social Democrat President Petro is negotiating with various armed groups, including drug cartels, to end the civil war in Colombia, the world’s largest cocaine producer.
Opponents of the left-wing Latin American country’s first-ever head of state say the security situation is deteriorating and question whether Mr Petros and the armed forces have the will and ability to respond to attacks by armed groups.
Source :Skai
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