On Monday, 66 Colombian soldiers were released after being held hostage by residents in a rural area of southern Colombia. The soldiers were initially taken captive on Saturday along with approximately 40 others, who managed to escape. The remaining 66 soldiers were held by around 650 residents, according to the mayor of nearby San Jose del Guaviare, Willy Rodriguez.
The government of Colombia attributes the hostage-taking to the influence of dissidents from the FARC guerrilla movement. Defense Minister Ivan Velasquez has specifically accused the Jorge Suarez Briceno rebel group, currently engaged in peace negotiations with the government, as being responsible for the “kidnapping.” The group had agreed to a bilateral ceasefire in October 2022.
The incident has raised concerns about the fragile peace process in Colombia. Velasquez warned over the weekend that the hostage-taking could jeopardize the ongoing truce. Despite a 2016 peace agreement that led to the disarmament of the FARC, violence persists in the country, involving security forces, leftist guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries, and drug gangs.
Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro, the first leftist president in the country’s history, has made ending the six-decade internal conflict a priority since taking office in August 2022. He has pursued negotiations with several armed groups to achieve this goal. The conflict has resulted in a devastating toll, with an estimated 9.5 million people displaced, murdered, kidnapped, or missing.
