Six members of armed groups were killed yesterday, Sunday, in Colombia during military operations carried out after the new President, Ambelardo de la Esprie, was sworn in, he announced. De la Esprie was elected on a platform of cracking down on rebels and drug-trafficking organizations.
The first military maneuvers send “a clear and strong message to all criminal elements,” the new president said. “There is no place where they can hide,” added the 48-year-old former lawyer, who belongs to the so-called hard right and was sworn in on Friday.
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Four rebels, including a mid-level commander of a dissident faction of the former FARC, were killed in a community in the department of Meta (centrally located, in the Amazon region of Colombia), while two members of the country’s most powerful drug cartel, the Clan del Golfo, were killed in a rural area in the department of Antioquia (northwest), according to the head of state.
Furthermore, Panamanian authorities stepped up security measures at the border yesterday, Sunday, following two attacks in Colombia, the government of the Central American country announced, even though just last week it appeared to be downplaying concerns about the infiltration of Colombian organizations into Panamanian territory.
Two attacks, which killed a police officer and injured several other people, marred last Saturday, the first day after the new President, Abelardo de la Espriella, took office, who has promised tough measures to combat organized crime and rebel groups in the country.
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Panama and Colombia share a 266-kilometer border through the Darien jungle, a particularly inhospitable region with virtually no road network. Following these attacks, Panama’s Ministry of Security announced that agents from the Panamanian Border Guard Service (SENAFRONT) and the Panamanian Air and Naval Service (SENAN) had increased their presence along the border and would “step up surveillance and control of the territory.”
The goal is to “secure all coastlines” and “our borders” and to “immediately combat organizations that commit crimes,” SENAFRONT Director General Larry Solis told Agence France-Presse.
Some in Panama are expressing concerns about the possibility that criminal organizations—such as, in particular, the Clan del Golfo cartel—or rebels from the National Liberation Army (ELN), might infiltrate Panama through the jungle in the event of a resurgence of hostilities in Colombia, where Abelardo de la Espriella has taken office.
However, Panama’s Minister of Public Security, Frank Abrego, had downplayed this possibility a few days earlier, stating that it was based on information shared between the Panamanian and Colombian authorities.
SOURCE: KYPE
