Colombian Army Intelligence maintains that the protests at the installations of an oil company in a rural area of the municipality of San Vicente del Caguán, in Caquetá, which left two dead and 84 hostages – already released – were allegedly financed by dissidents of the now defunct FARC guerrillas.
The Colombian authorities state that the ‘Jorge Briceño’ and ‘Miller Perdomo’ structures were behind the protests, which ended this Saturday after several days in which 78 policemen and six oil company workers were held, reported RCN channel.
According to reports from the Army, both structures are led in that region by an acquaintance of the authorities, Alexander Díaz Mendoza, alias ‘Calarcá’, who »would have mobilized more than 3,000 people» to maintain and intensify the blockades that took place in the area during the last month.
Another of those accused of allegedly encouraging the protests is Wilmer Andrés Lugo Olaya. Both allegedly provided resources and material valued at 500 million Colombian pesos (about 100,000 euros) to confront the police.
Last Thursday morning, a group of people broke into the installations that the oil company Emerald Energy has in Los Pozos, in the middle of the Colombian Amazon, in protest against the non-fulfillment of some of the company’s commitments with the surrounding populations, such as paving some of the access roads.
Two people were killed as a result of clashes between peasants and police officers, a civilian and a police second lieutenant. The protests, which intensified on Wednesday after a month, left 40 injured and about a hundred people detained, although they were released this Saturday.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
