Bogotá, March 2. At least two people were killed this Thursday in clashes between a group of indigenous Colombians and peasants against the public force which tries to contain a demonstration in front of the installations of the oil company Emerald Energy in the department of Caquetá, in the south from the country.
The protest began weeks ago with the seizure of the facilities, located in the hamlet of Los Pozos in the town of San Vicente del Caguan, but on Wednesday tensions increased with the burning of part of the company oil company and the intervention of Esmad, the police riot unit.
As a result, one peasant and one law enforcement officer died, according to official figures, although other sources say there could be four dead.
The clashes led opposition members to demand urgent government intervention on Thursday.
San Vicente del Caguan Mayor Juan Alfredo Perdomo told local media that protesters detained 76 Esmad members.
Faced with this situation, Colombian President Gustavo Petro ordered the dispatch of a “commission of the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of the Interior and the Military Forces to deal with the situation of Pozos in San Vicente del Caguan “.
“I ordered the cessation of acts of violence,” added the president in a message posted on his Twitter account.
Indigenous and peasant communities have accessed oil company facilities to claim their rights to land operated by Emerald Energy.
The protests began after, after a year and a half of waiting, the highway promised by the local authorities and by the oil company, which allocated an investment for this project, was not built, Wilman Fierro, a councilor of San Vicente del Caguan, known as EFE. . “Time has passed and this need has not been met,” he added.
In the demonstration “there are many communities involved”, both ethnic peoples and peasants, who at present have managed to gather some 3,000 people in the “strike” in front of the oil company.
Fierro called for a quick fix because otherwise it could mean “environmental disaster – there are 100,000 barrels of oil held up without getting out – and loss of life.”