
Boos and whistles greeted Juan Manuel Santos this morning as his presidential helicopter touched down in Toribio, south west Colombia.
Santos lands after nearly a week of intense FARC bombardments that have left thousands displaced, and whole streets reduced to rubble.
Over the last decade the FARC have attacked 500 times. The municipal, known locally as ‘Toribistan’, or as Semana magazine put it, ‘Bagdad’, is at the front-line of a terrorist struggle against the Colombian state.
Despite the president’s arrival, the situation remains tense with reports this evening that the FARC have shot down a military aeroplane. At the same time, the area’s large indigenous population, frustrated at the apparent impotence of the state, are threatening to take things into their own hands, taking the fight to both the FARC and the military.
The drama should not be over-played, this does not represent a return to Colombia’s past. But Santos knows that he must seize control, and re-assert his policies on national security.
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Filed under: Colombia, Política | Tagged: Caracol tv, Colombia, Colombia-Politics.com, Farc, Juan Manuel Santos, Kevin Howlett, RCN, Semana, Toribio | Leave a comment »