EDefense Minister Iván Velásquezarrived around noon in the municipality of San Vicente del Caguan, in Caquetáwhere this Thursday there were attacks against the National Police that left a balance of a policeman and a farmer killed, and 75 uniformed officers kidnapped.
Velásquez arrived in this municipality of Caqueta more than 24 hours after the public order problems were registered in the area known as Los Pozos, where peasants and indigenous guards protested, resorting to the use of force, against an oil firm.
There, the Minister of Defense came to lead a Uniformed Command Post that President Gustavo Petro ordered to be installed to coordinate with the authorities from Bogotá how to proceed after confrontations who registered on Thursday.
According to Velásquez, actions are being coordinated between the Governmentthe Military Forces, the National Police, the Government of Caquetá and the Mayor’s Office of San Vicente del Caguan for darle solution to public order problems registered since Thursday.
Prior to the arrival of Velásquez, the Minister of the Interior and Government Spokesperson, Alfonso Pradawarned that the delegates of the Casa de Nariño They will not dialogue with the protesters until they release the 79 police officers that they are kidnapped, but that the Government considers as “retained”.
“We have asked them that a insurmountable requirement to sit down to talk with a great overflow of the Government in relation to the social issues of the community is naturally the immediate release from our members of the Police and six workers from the company Emerald Energy who are being held there by those organizations,” Prada said.
For his part, he mayor of San Vicente del Caguan, Julián Perdomopointed out that this tension has been going on for a month and clarified that although the Government promised to be present at a meeting to engage in dialogue last Tuesday, their delegates never arrived.