Colombian Bishop Blames Government, Armed Groups for Unrest Latin American Herald Tribune April 25, 2018
BOGOTA – The bishop of Tumaco, Orlando Olave Villanova, said in an interview with EFE that this southwestern Colombian city on the border with Ecuador is being stifled by the government’s neglect and the escalation of violence by illegal armed groups.
Olave said the Pacific port city – one of the poorest in the country – is so deteriorated that many of its 200,000 inhabitants have come to miss the times when the area was dominated by FARC guerrillas.
“Violence started 25 years ago,” Olave said. “This reality at the border is the result of the lack of institutionality, the lack of a state, to the point where people say that ‘we were better off with the FARC.’”
Crime, violence, a lack of roads, unemployment, low-quality education and limited access to fuel, electricity and other public services are among the ills plaguing Tumaco, located in Nariño province, worsening poverty and encouraging the proliferation of drug cartels, which control some 23,000 hectares (56,800 acres) of coca crops, the largest plantations in the country.
The bishop also said that most Tumacans want to stop growing coca but have no other alternatives, as they are paid a mere 5,000 pesos ($1.70) per kilo (2.2 lbs) of cacao, a crop whose production is more expensive than coca, which brings high prices.
The resurgence of guerrilla violence one year after the signing of a peace agreement with the FARC prevents Tumacans from leading normal lives, as the constant attacks from a splinter group calling itself the Oliver Sinisterra Front cut power to the city several times this year.
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