Natives throw Colombian troops off base

About 1,000 indigenous residents of Toribío in the southern Cauca department, angered by gunfights around them between the state and communist guerrillas and implementing an earlier threat to take charge of local security, forced soldiers to abandon a nearby position on 16-17 July, in keeping with a deadline they had set, Europa Press reported on 18 July. Members of the Nasa nation climbed the Cerro Berlín, a hill overlooking Toribío, and urged 200 troops to leave a position defending a communication installation; refusing, the soldiers were disarmed and pushed out amid reported arguments and scuffles. The soldiers did not use their arms, but FARC guerrillas nearby were reported to have shot in that direction without causing injuries. Natives then sealed and occupied the site; a sergent expelled in the incident said he felt "humiliated," Reuters reported. President Juan Manuel Santos denounced the "unacceptable events" he qualified as liable to prosecution; "everything has a limit," he said, and the state would not permit attacks on "those who defend us." Defence Minister Juan Carlos Pinzón said in turn that "the public force cannot and must not leave" Cauca and leave natives "at the mercy of guerrillas and drug traffickers." He claimed the FARC had "infiltrated" certain native organizations, without specifying. "Autonomy and respect for native rights are one thing, starting to break the law is quite another," he said. The governor of the regional Indigenous Council Héctor Fabio Vircué was cited as saying on 17 July that natives were not demanding an evacuation of the Cauca "but of our territories. The place where they put the base was sacred." Separately the governor of Cauca Themístocles Ortega described the situation as the result of the state's "slow and belated" response to Cauca's situation. He said "the Cauca is living today the state's historical abandonment," and urged reconciliation between natives and the state, Europa Press reported.