Crowd protested to demand departure from the Army in Nariño

The National Army announced that units belonging to the Infantry Battalion No. 9 Battle of Boyacá arrived in El Rincón, located in the department of Nariño, units belonging to Infantry Battalion No. 9 Battle of Boyacá to carry out territorial control tasks, when “they were tumultuarily and violently surrounded by approximately 2000 people, apparently inhabitants of the sector, who, using faint, threatening words with whistles, demanded that military personnel leave the sector.”

According to information from the military institution, the soldiers arrived in the area to counter the action in the area of the residual organized armed group Estructura Franco Benavides. “There is information that this criminal structure would be inciting the community to carry out this type of action,” he said.

In addition, he explained that he would be doing this with the intention of preventing the troops from continuing their advance towards nodal points where there is a strong presence of all the links in the drug trafficking chain.

“The uniformed personnel attended the dialogue with the civilian population, letting them know that they were in compliance with a constitutional duty, taking action to mitigate the risks noted in the early warnings 082 of 2018 and 036 of 2020 of the Office of the Ombudsman, originating in attention to the situation of vulnerability of the indigenous, Afro-descendant and mestizo communities in the municipalities of Cumbitara, El Rosario, Leiva and Policarpa,” the Army added in a statement.

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Likewise, he explained that the villagers refused to listen to the military and through asonada coerced the personnel to prevent them from continuing with the conduct of operations. “The uniformed, respecting the human rights of the inhabitants, agreed to withdraw from the area, being taken to the municipal seat of El Rosario by demonstrators, who mobilized in vehicles and motorcycles,” the information indicated.

This situation occurred again in the towns of La Sierra and La Esmeralda, where the military units were surrounded by people who would be inhabitants of the area, and who expressed their disagreement with the military presence. Faced with the situation, forced by the demonstrators, the troops withdrew from the sector to the urban area of El Rosario.

This is how it was decided to hold a security meeting in the municipal seat of El Rosario, where government and local authorities, members of the security forces and the civilian population participated, to socialize the risks warned in the different early warnings. The importance and necessity of the presence of the National Army in this sector was stressed.

“The Command of the Twenty-Third Brigade calls on the municipal and governmental authorities to take legal action against these events by the civilian population from their roles and functions, in compliance with the constitutional principle of harmonious collaboration between institutions,” warned the Army.

Similarly, he called on the community not to obstruct military operations, “since this may constitute criminal types, such as those enshrined in articles 226, 429 and 469, of the Colombian Penal Code”, and in that regard, he noted that he will continue to carry out military operations in the department of Nariño, aimed at ensure the safety of the civilian population.

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