Colombia’s Attorney General’s Office has launched a formal investigation—case number 0355, handled by the 23rd Sectional Prosecutor’s Office—into suspicions that organized criminal groups are behind a series of forest fires burning across five departments, with Tolima hit hardest.
The probe began after Tolima’s governor, Adriana Magali Matiz, first appealed for emergency help to control the fires and later went further, saying she had serious evidence pointing to criminal involvement rather than accidental causes. According to her account, the locations of the 21 fires closely match areas where FARC dissident factions—armed groups that rejected Colombia’s 2016 peace accord and continue operating in rural zones—have recently clashed with security forces.
Investigators are examining a troubling theory: that these groups may be using the fires as a diversion tactic, aiming to stretch military and police resources thin and slow down an ongoing security offensive against them. Adding to the concern, authorities are also looking into reports that criminal networks may have infiltrated local firefighting units, and that drones have been used to attack military personnel in the affected regions—tactics that would mark an alarming escalation in how these groups operate.
The fires have already caused losses estimated in the millions of dollars across the affected departments. For the full investigative report, read the original article on El Tiempo’s website.
Image: GlacierNPS, PDM 1.0 (via Openverse).