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Colombia to evacuate ex-FARC fighters after attacks
BOGOTA, July 4, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Scores of ex-FARC rebels and their relatives will be evacuated from a reintegration zone after a series of deadly attacks in northwestern Colombia, the government announced Friday.
The head of the Office for Stabilization and Consolidation, Emilio Archila, announced that 74 former guerrillas and 19 of their relatives will be transferred from Ituango in the department of Antioquia for their own security.
The guerrillas will leave the Santa Lucia Territorial Reincorporation Zone — one of 24 set up under a 2016 peace agreement — on July 15.
The group will be transferred to Mutata, in the same department, “following the assassination of 11 of the reincorporated from Ituango and two of their relatives, including a minor, and constant threats,” said the FARC.
Reincorporation Zones were established to help reintegrate former combatants into civilian life after the end of Colombia’s longest-running conflict.
The mayor of Mutata, Maria Exilda Palacios, said her town had also been affected by violence but now was “a territory that believes in reconciliation” and the “return of ex-combatants to legality.”
The state’s Reincorporation and Normalization agency ARN said the ex-rebels will be resettled in two rented plots of land, totalling around 137 hectares (340 acres) some 350 kilometers ( 220 miles) from Santa Lucia.
“The relocation will be carried out in compliance with all safety and health protocols to avoid possible contagion from COVID-19,” ARN head Andres Stapper told a joint press conference with Achila.
Antioquia is a key transit corridor for cocaine trafficking, fought over by armed gangs and dissident FARC guerrillas who rejected the peace agreement.
According to the authorities, these groups are responsible for the attacks against ex-guerrillas who laid down their arms.
FARC says 214 of its members have been murdered since the signing of the peace deal with the government of former President Juan Manuel Santos, who received the Nobel Peace Prize.
According to the government, 2,946 former FARC combatants are currently living in the 24 reintegration zones throughout the country.
BSS/AFP/MSY/1233 hrs