By Luis Jaime Acosta

EL PLATEADO/SAN JUAN DE MICAY, Colombia (Reuters) -The dilapidated, tin-roofed schoolhouse sits perched amid fields of coca, the base ingredient in cocaine, in the small southwestern Colombian town of San Juan de Micay.

Reached by an unpaved road that meanders through treacherous mountain passes, the town is located in the Canon del Micay, a drug-trafficking hub that is the site of frequent combat between the army and the Estado Mayor Central, a faction of leftist rebels who reject a 2016 peace deal.

“Here there is state abandonment. Here the government never brings us anything,” said community leader Fernanda Rivera, as she sat at one of the school’s desks.

The town lacks running water, sewage treatment and paved roads, she said, and electricity is intermittent. T

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