At least 18 people have been killed in alleged clashes between illegal armed groups in the town of Puerto Guzman, in the Putumayo region of southwestern Colombia.
«Regrettable the situation in the rural area we are presented with this situation that once again disturbs our tranquility. At this moment there are 18 corpses in the cemetery (…) for the pertinent process», explained the mayor of Puerto Guzmán, Edison Gerardo Mora Rojas, as reported by the Caracol chain.
Mora explained that «the community itself» has collected the lifeless bodies to transfer them to the cemetery. The deceased would be the combatants themselves, with no civilians included in the death toll for the moment. In addition, more than a dozen families are internally displaced.
The mayor, in turn, has asked the High Commissioner for Peace to mediate to stop the violence in that area of the country.
The illegal armed groups involved in this confrontation are the so-called ‘Comandos de Frontera’ and ‘Carolina Ramírez’, reports radio station W Radio.
Troops of the Colombian Army and judicial authorities are mobilized towards this area of the country to carry out the respective surveys. Local authorities have convened an extraordinary security council to investigate the situation after the event and to analyze the public order situation in the area.
