Colombia on the offensive against drug trafficking corridors
Colombia plans to deploy 400 soldiers to fight drug traffickers operating across its borders with Peru, Brazil and Ecuador.
Seven units with 400 soldiers and police officers will be on the front lines of operations to block drug-trafficking corridors from southern Colombia, Interior Minister Alfonso Prada told reporters last night after a Security Council meeting.
Colombian President Gustavo Pedro, the country's first left-wing leader, called a meeting with senior officials of the armed forces following recent clashes between armed groups that killed 18 people and displaced a dozen families in the southwestern department of Putumajo, which borders Ecuador and Peru.
A splinter faction of FARC guerrillas – Front Carolina Ramírez, is in armed conflict with the Conados de la Frontera group.
The Carolina Ramírez Front belongs to the largest faction that withdrew from the peace agreement that included the disarmament of the FARC in 2017.
According to Colombian authorities, the two groups are fighting for supremacy and control of drug dealers' routes in the forests between Colombia and Ecuador.
We contacted the countries with which we border because we noticed an activity against which we will fight with our army, but also with international cooperation, said the Minister of Interior.
He said that the Colombian Government has also approached the authorities in Panama and Venezuela, where the powerful Colombian cartel "Clan de Golfo" and the Colombian guerrillas of the National Liberation Army (ELN) operate.