Valle and Cauca, on alert due to a plan for another kidnapping of deputies, this time by dissidents

It was 10:15 in the morning on April 11, 22 years ago, when a group of men in camouflage, boots, rifles on their shoulders, German shepherd dogs and even megaphones in hand, They began to surround the complex and inside they insisted to all the officials and visitors that an evacuation was imminent in that infrastructure in the heart of Cali and a few meters from the Department’s Government.

The supposed Army soldiers and some uniformed as police cordoned off four blocks around with yellow tape, leaving citizens separated and confused; People, from afar and in broad daylight, tried to know and understand what was really happening in the historic building in the center of Cali.

Inside the premises, the uniformed officers made the 12 deputies leave towards the street, where a bus was waiting for them, parked on the corner of Carrera 9 and Calle 8. It was less than two blocks from the Government building, called the Palace. from San Francisco.

Some of the assembly members managed to communicate by telephone with their relatives, telling them that, apparently, members of the Public Force were going to put them to death.
except.

But in the middle of the trip to some unknown place towards the mountains of the immense Farallones range, in the southwest of the city, those uniformed men revealed that they were from the FARC by order of the ‘Joint Command of the West’ and that they were already kidnapped. .
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​From that moment, all of Cali and the country were paralyzed by one of the largest mass kidnappings of the political order in the history of Colombia, a painful episode for their families that ended with the murder of 11 of the assembly members of the time, hands of the FARC, during, June 18, 2007.

Now, the FARC dissidents of the Central General Staff (EMC) threaten to kidnap the deputies of Valle, 22 years after the first kidnapping, and also deputies of Cauca.

The president of the Valle Assembly, Felipe López, said: “I think that above all we must remain calm and I have asked the deputies to remain calm.” He pointed out that the Public Force has been carrying out operations, “in a vehement exercise in the mountainous area around Valle del Cauca. Those affected seek to intimidate and generate fear.”

But he stated: “The criminals are not going to beat us, they are not going to intimidate us.” He recalled blows in Algeria, in Cauca, where on April 24 a motorcycle bomb exploded that fortunately left no fatalities or serious injuries.

López maintained that the Public Force presented an assessment of deficiencies, in order to give it tools to strengthen itself. “We have the shirt on for our department.”

CALI AND POPAYÁN
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