Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro has ordered the transfer of 400 soldiers to Putumayo department to try to tackle insecurity caused by fighting between armed groups.
Petro, who convened the Security Council to address the issue, has stressed that Putumayo will receive six platoons of the National Army to guarantee security in the area, as reported by Colombian radio station RCN Radio.
In the words of Interior Minister Alfonso Prada, the military will be in charge of «operations and full control of the territory» with the fundamental objective of controlling any hint of criminal activity.
«The aim is to block drug trafficking corridors to other countries in the south. We will establish contact with the countries on the border, because we notice an activity that we are going to combat with our forces but also with international support,» he said.
Putumayo has been the scene of clashes between armed groups in recent days. As part of the response operations, authorities have made at least 130 arrests and destroyed 720 cocaine processing laboratories.
