They release 180 Colombian soldiers who had been detained on the border with Venezuela

Coca growers released this Thursday 180 soldiers who had been detained two days before when they carried out anti-drug operations in a town on the border with Venezuela, reported the Ombudsman’s Office.

According to the army, on Tuesday peasants armed with sticks and machetes surrounded the troops that were destroying coca crops in Tibú, a municipality in the department of Norte de Santander that concentrates the world’s largest crops of this plant used to extract cocaine.

But on Thursday afternoon, “unilaterally” the coca growers decided “to withdraw from the place and not impede the work of the public force,” the Ombudsman, which ensures human rights, said in a statement.

Earlier, President Iván Duque had accused the coca growers of “kidnapping” and had warned them that the authorities would act in the area if the “rapid release” of the uniformed men did not take place.

A team from the AFP He saw when the peasants withdrew from the school where the uniformed men were held, who always kept their weapons. “The army was not the victim of any type of violence, kidnapping,” says a statement released by the coca growers.

In the afternoon, a group of uniformed men spoke with the peasants with the mediation of the Ombudsman’s Office.

“The humanitarian siege was carried out in order to avoid possible human rights violations (…) due to the antecedents that occurred in 2020 in eradication work in the municipalities of Cúcuta and Sardinata,” where two peasants died, adds the text .

The coca growers often clash with the military who uproot the plantations.

“They have not wanted to enter into confrontation and I value that for the professionalism (…) but certainly these practices cannot continue in the country,” Duque claimed before the release.

“The situation ends here with a voluntary agreement by the communities,” Jhon Ascanio, a human rights official who participated in the mediation, explained to AFP.

The inhabitants of the area “state that there is no alternative or integral presence of the government (…) that there is only presence through the public force. That is the malaise, “added Ascanio.

Tibú, in the department of Norte Santander, is part of the so-called Catatumbo region, the territory with the most drug crops in the world.

In the area there are some 40,084 hectares planted with coca leaves, according to the latest 2020 UN report.

Rebels from the ELN guerrillas and dissidents from the former FARC guerrillas who did not adhere to the 2016 peace agreement operate in the area, profiting from drug trafficking revenues.

According to the Ombudsman’s Office, peasants have long demanded the end of forced eradication and a program to replace crops that provide them with sources of income other than coca.

Duque has redoubled the persecution of drug trafficking by eliminating the crops, which are carried out manually by the soldiers.

Despite the persecution, thousands continue to plant coca, especially with the labor of Venezuelan settlers and migrants fleeing the social and economic crisis in their country.

With a record production figure of 1,010 tons in 2020, Colombia remains the world’s largest exporter of cocaine and the United States as the main consumer of that drug. (I)