Dozens of Colombian soldiers released after three-day captivity in Amazon

According to the Colombian Ombudsman’s Office, 33 Colombian soldiers have been freed after three days of confinement in a remote Amazonian village dominated by armed rebel groups and drug crops.

As troops were led out of the rural community in Guaviare province on Thursday, Iris Marin, the head of the Ombudsman’s Office, said, “At this moment, soldiers are withdrawing from the village Nueva York.”

At least ten people were killed in clashes with an armed group on Monday, which led to the soldiers’ arrest.

In what the government of President Gustavo Petro called a kidnapping, villagers then blocked roads, preventing the soldiers from leaving. Marin continued, “We urge people to refrain from stigmatizing the community.”

Negotiations led by government, Ombudsman’s Office, and UN officials resulted in the soldiers’ release. Initial reports indicated 34 troops were detained, but later that number was increased to 33.

In Colombia’s southern regions, where the state has a limited presence and armed groups frequently have control over communities, mass detentions of security forces have become a common practice.

The attorney general’s office has received a formal complaint about the incident from the army. Recontractors were deployed “to prevent any attacks in this hostile environment,” according to military commander Admiral Francisco Cubides, who claimed locals were “being manipulated” by rebel factions.

Ivaan Mordisco, a former leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), who spearheaded the dissident group, rejected a 2016 peace agreement that sought to end the nation’s six-decade armed conflict, which has resulted in the deaths of more than 450, 000 people.

In the southwest of Cali, Mordisco-linked fighters detonated a truck bomb last week, injuring more than 60 people and killing six people.

Authorities accuse his organization of recruiting children and using intimidation to thwart state security forces.

The soldiers’ detention area in the Amazonian corridor is a major hub for drug trafficking, with extensive coca plantations being the main ingredient in cocaine production.