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November 28, 2020 – 07:01 pm
Colprensa
Practically some municipalities in the southwest of Cauca are now ghost towns, as a result of the armed strike decreed by the National Liberation Army, Eln.
This is confirmed by merchants and social leaders from towns such as Argelia, Balboa, Bolívar, El Tambo, among others, when expressing that they do not leave their homes for fear of suffering an attack from this group outside the law.
“It is better to prevent against this threat that the ELN launched, through a pamphlet that circulated widely in the region and where they ordered that no car, except ambulances, can move from last night until the morning of next Monday, that is why many companies of public transport suspended the routes to avoid burning their cars, “says a merchant from El Patía, requesting to remain anonymous.
Although officially no authority has ruled on the issue, for the peasants of these regions of the department it is a reality, and an act of good sense, to comply with said demand of that guerrilla, which is waging a war against the FARC dissidents.
“We cannot go out, here in Algeria it is better that they kill one, yesterday they murdered three people in El Plateado. One of the victims was the merchant Amparo Macías Daza, so if the threats are carried out, the people understand that and no one was on the street today, ”says an engineer who works in this municipality in the southwest of Cauca.
You can read: They denounce the murder of a young demobilized from the Farc in Atrato, Chocó
In addition, to contribute to that scene of lonely streets, the company that provides the transport service to the towns located in the Micay Canyon, limits between Algeria and El Tambo, suspended work this weekend, shows that fear is a reality .
This same panorama is registered in municipalities such as Balboa, where people, between fear and a bit of black humor, express that it seems that they have returned from quarantine, as they experienced when the first cases of Covid-19 were confirmed in this area of the country.
“My people are alone, the fear of war is much more than the coronavirus itself, the threat of the Eln to isolate people is more effective than the government’s own order not to remain on the streets. Today was market day but no one came out, the merchants did not open, signs of the misrule that exists in this area of Cauca ”, comments a social leader from Balboa.
In Bolívar and La Vega, although the market day is coming up, people recognize that the fear that exists due to the ELN order not to move between these towns is a reality.
It is that after the massacre registered in El Mango, eight days ago, the conflict intensified, especially in the southwest of the department to the point that the ELn ordered Venezuelans and citizens of other departments, especially Caquetá, to leave the rural area the Argelia.
For this reason, around 300 people fled from El Plateado and settled in the urban area and later moved to Pasto or Popayán, a scene that had not been experienced in the department since the signing of the peace accords with the extinct FARC, but now returned for the war between these two armed organizations.
See also: A social leader, one of the five victims of the massacre registered in Algeria, Cauca
While these are the versions of the people who are in these territories, officials of the Cauca governorate expressed that there is normality along the roads in the south of the department as they themselves verified in the visit made by the first authority of the department, Elías Larrahondo Carabalí, to the municipality of Sucre.
“Today there is a market in this town, so you see people selling and buying without any setback, the governor is here at an event with local authorities and the community and everything has passed in complete calm,” said officials accompanying the president of the caucanos.
So far, that is the panorama that exists on the first day of the armed strike decreed by the Eln in this region of the country.
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