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News > Latin America

Colombian President Santos Promises to Fight Crime in Tumaco with New Force

  • The Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos greets a fishing community during his visit to Tumaco, Narino, Colombia, October 21, 2017.

    The Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos greets a fishing community during his visit to Tumaco, Narino, Colombia, October 21, 2017. | Photo: EFE

Published 21 October 2017
Opinion

Santos also promised that implementing the program of substitution of illicit crops will be a top priority.

Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos has officially launched Operation Atlas, an initiative deploying more than 9,000 police and military personnel to fight crime in the municipality of Tumaco.

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Santos made the announcement on a visit to the southwest of the country, in the province of Narino, to meet political and social leaders.

He said the new initiative "reorganizes the Public Force, unites units that were dispersed ...and gives the command to a Major General who has specific plans to fight crime."

Santos also promised that implementing the program of substitution of illicit crops will be a top priority.

The municipality has the largest amount of coca plantations in Colombia with 23.148 hectares — 16 percent of the total in the country — and has seen a steady rise in violence over recent weeks.

Seven people were killed at a demonstration against the eradication of their coca crops in Tumaco on October 5. 

Local rights groups say they were killed by the police but the authorities say dissident FARC fighters were to blame.

Social leader Jose Jair Cortes was also assassinated in Narino.

According to the Foundation of Peace and Reconciliation, 11 armed groups are fighting each other for the control of the area, including three groups of FARC dissidents — Guerrillas Unidas del Pacifico, La gente del nuevo orden and the Oliver Sinisterra group.

16 percent of Tumaco's 200,000 residents live in poverty. 

A recent joint study by the United Nations Development Program and the Colombian government found that 48.7 percent of the local population are in need.

Earlier this week, Santos said the "government was absent in Tumaco for many years" and now, with the Peace Agreement sealed, "problems are emerging that were submerged under the armed conflict."

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Paramilitary groups have been moving in as the former rebels move out and transition into civilian life creating a power vacuum. The paramiltaries are said to be taking over in the area due to the high level of coca cultivation and are forcing many residents to leave their homes.

The unrest is threatening the peace deal agreed with the FARC last November.

After his meeting with more than 50 social leaders, including women's representatvies and victims of conflict, the Colombian President said he assured them that the operatives will attack all "the links of the drug traffic" in Tumaco with force.

He said, "This campaign also has a very important aspect, on the one hand is the Public Force and on the other hand is comprehensive action, which is social action, the presence of the State to help communities in their daily lives, in their problems, in their needs."

The government will also distribute 170 houses to the 760 victims of the natural phenomenon known as La Nina that caused heavy rains in 2010 and 2011; as well as 169 fishing boats that will benefit to 729 families.

Santos said that "if we can boost industrial fishing in the region, incomes will multiply as well."

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