Spanish diplomatic official kidnapped in Toribio, Cauca

The agronomist, and diplomatic official, Jesus Quintana Garcia, was intercepted while driving on a municipal highway near the municipality of Toribio, in the department of Cauca. Quintana Garcia, who serves as director of the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), in Palmyra, apparently it was detained by unknown persons on the night of Sunday, December 6, which provoked reactions from the director of the National Police and the Minister of Defense, and voices linked to the agricultural sector in Colombia.

While the General Oscar Atehortúa preferred not to go into details about who, or who, were responsible for the illegal retention, Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo asked for the freedom of Quintana “As soon as possible”, to point out that this is “(… sic) an international civil servant with diplomatic status who directs a tropical agriculture center that is a source of pride for our country”.

Who is Jesús Quintana García?

With a master’s degree obtained in Environment and Development since University of Reading (England), Quintana García has thirty years of experience in rural development and international cooperation.

He began his academic career at the Polytechnic of Madrid, where he graduated as Forestal engineer, to continue studies of Sociology at the Spanish University of Distance Education (UNIT); later he moved to England to complete his higher studies.

Quintana García has worked for him International Fund for Agricultural Development, a United Nations organization dedicated to rural development, based in Rome between 2007 and 2020.

Read More: “This is the fifth time that has happened to me”: Juancho De la Espriella questions the Colombian justice after millionaire robbery of which he was a victim

In In 2018, he assumed the role of FAO representative for Latin America, a position he held for a year, before arriving in 2020 as director at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Colombia.

Quintana Garcia He has been an official of the Ministry of Agriculture of his country, Spain, as well as a member of the North American Agency for Development (USAID), in addition to being a relevant academic consultant in the field of agriculture and development for emerging or growing countries.

Reactions

A few hours after the kidnapping of Quintana Garcia, the mayor of Palmira, Valle del Cauca, issued a communication via Twitter, in which he rejected the kidnapping of the official and joined the voices that asked his captors for his prompt release: “I reject this fact that not only affects CIAT, but also all the agricultural research institutions that from Palmira and the south west of Colombia contribute to innovation in the field”.

In the same vein, the statement of the former Minister of Agriculture, Andres Valencia: ”I regret the kidnapping of Jesús Quintana that occurred today in the department of Cauca. Surely the action of the authorities will make him return safely to his family soon “.

The International Center for Tropical Agriculture, a multilateral organization with offices in Africa, Europe and South America, and whose recognition in the field of agricultural development is endorsed by the United Nations, has not yet established a pronouncement on the illegal retention of Quintana García.

Read More: They confronted the hit men and also killed them: this was the massacre that left four victims in Santander de Quilichao, Cauca

Police sources attribute the authorship of this kidnapping to dissidents from the former Farc guerrilla, based in Cauca.

898 indigenous people who fled after the murder of a social leader in Bahía Solano ask for government help

“There is no difference between Madrid, Cundinamarca; or Madrid, Spain ”: Duque insists that Colombia will not ask visitors for PCR tests

New details and the identity of the four victims of the massacre in Santander de Quilichao, Cauca are known