Colombian rebel group Estado Mayor Central has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of French Foreign Legion Corporal José Olger Melo Charry in southwestern Colombia.
The dissident group announced on Sunday, August 30 that units from its Central General Staff intercepted and captured the active-duty soldier on August 6 while he was traveling on a road in the department of Nariño. The guerrilla faction added that Melo Charry was alive and in perfect health, addressing its statement to French authorities, his family and his friends.
Melo Charry, a Colombian national, has served in the French armed forces for four years. The French Foreign Legion, established in 1831 as an elite unit of the French military, allows foreign nationals to enlist. France’s Ministry of Armed Forces stated that the corporal was on official leave at the time of his capture. While his leave permitted him to remain within metropolitan French territory, it did not authorize him to travel to Colombia. Before the announcement, his family had received no ransom demand or proof of life.
Abduction in Nariño
The soldier was captured while traveling through Nariño, a rural department in southwestern Colombia bordering Ecuador and the Pacific Ocean. The faction claiming the kidnapping operates under the leadership of a commander known as Ivan Mordisco, who is Colombia’s most wanted guerrilla leader. Armed groups in the region frequently carry out abductions to extort money or exert political pressure on Colombian authorities.
The Estado Mayor Central, or EMC, is the main dissident faction of the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC. While the main FARC organization signed a peace agreement with the Colombian government in 2016 to demobilize, dissident groups rejected the accord and continued armed operations. Guerrilla groups across Colombia rely heavily on illegal gold mining and drug trafficking alongside kidnappings to finance their insurgency.
Security Policy Shift
The kidnapping occurs amid a major shift in national counter-insurgency policy under President Abelardo de la Espriella. Since taking office at the start of August, de la Espriella, a hardline right-wing leader, has pursued an aggressive campaign against guerrilla groups and drug cartels with military and financial support from the United States.
He succeeded Gustavo Petro, a leftist leader and former member of a demobilized guerrilla movement. Petro attempted to negotiate peace agreements with various armed groups during his term in office, but most of those negotiations failed. Security analysts noted that illegal armed factions expanded their territory and strengthened their military capacity throughout Petro’s presidency.
