The governor of the southwestern Cauca department has asked the Colombian government to declare a state of emergency in the north of the department to release funds to rebuild towns that were nearly destroyed in recent attacks by guerrilla group the FARC.
Governor Alberto Gonzalez told several media Sunday that he needs serious help from Bogota to be able to rebuild the towns of Corinto and Toribio, who came under attack by the FARC two weeks ago.
A state of emergency “is an instrument that allows us to channel resources and actions to repair more than 390 buildings among which the police station, the house of justice and the mayor’s office, as well as houses that were destroyed by the subversive’s actions,” Caracol Radio quoted the governor as saying.
The recent attacks on the towns killed seven, injured more than a hundred and nearly destroyed the towns.
Colombian armed forces have sent reinforcements to the region to prevent guerrillas, whose main area of operations are in the mountains to the east of the Cauca departments, from carrying out such destructive attacks again.
