What are the effects on the local population of the Putumayo area?
Civilians living in Colombia near the Ecuador border are caught in the crossfire. They fear that due to the attack on the FARC encampment, guerrillas are much more likely to target the surrounding community, accusing them of being government informants. At the same time, they also fear that the Colombian military is going to come down hard on those in the region due to their claims that the community has been supporting the guerrillas since they are in the area. A local woman we met with this week explained the situation to us: “The assassination [of Raul Reyes] occurred 15 minutes from where I live and now everyone in my community is afraid of the repression that is coming. The government is now saying we are all guerillas and that is why we are afraid of state violence. But we are not guerillas. We are not paramilitaries. We are not informants. We are just poor farmers and right now we are focused on not being pushed off our lands.We want to work because we need to work to survive. B
