Gustavo Petro confirmed this Sunday the release of three civilians, two of them prosecutors, and a soldier who were kidnapped by a dissident of the former FARC in the department of Cauca, in the southwest of the country.
“The members of the prosecutor’s office and a soldier kidnapped by the EMC in Cauca have been released,” Petro wrote in a publication on the social network
The civilians had been kidnapped last month on a rural highway in Cauca, and their relatives had asked the authorities to suspend military operations to guarantee their safety. Two of those kidnapped are investigators from the Technical Investigation Corps (CTI) of the Prosecutor’s Office.
The release was carried out after a process of dialogue with institutions and channels with the Colombian State to ensure the minimum conditions for his release. The kidnapped people were handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
The EMC, divided into a group that negotiates peace with the Government and another, of which the Dagoberto Ramos front is a part, thanked the UN Verification Mission in Colombia and the Ombudsman’s Office for facilitating the channels of dialogue with the National government.
The dialogue between the Government and the EMC has been stalled since the group split in two and the Government excluded dissidents from the southwest of the country from the negotiating table. These dissident groups, considered the most violent, kept the released people hostage.
The EMC statement also criticizes the Government for trying to hold a dialogue with a minority that does not represent dissidents in their entirety. According to the group, this minority does not even reach 5% of the dissidents.