The FARC is protesting the buildup of right-wing paramilitaries in Putumayo and insists that alleged Army support of the paramilitaries must end. Some analysts say the continued heavy fighting between the FARC and paramilitaries in Putumayo is part of a war for the right to protect and profit from the region's cultivation of coca leaves, used to make cocaine. While the FARC, paramilitaries, and the government grapple over the future of Putumayo, local residents say they are coming up the losers. The FARC have burned cars and buses that defied the strike order. Electric lines have been cut and gasoline supplies reduced to a trickle.
Food is increasingly scarce, prices skyrocketing.
Just across the silty Putumayo River from Puerto Asis, FARC soldiers openly man a river port checkpoint. They interrupt their pool game and flirtations with local girls to bar local residents from carrying produce across to hungry Puerto Asis. They are with us in opposition to Plan Colombia and the paras, so they are willing to put up with the hardship of the strike. Puerto Asis store owners, however, took a stand Tuesday by closing their shops in protest against the slow arrival of government help. That's a view shared by the mayor of Puerto Asis, Manuel Alzate.