Petro suspends truce with largest FARC dissident group after murder of minors

“It is reported that the bilateral truce currently in force with this armed group in the departments of Meta, Caquetá, Guaviare and Putumayo [south] is suspended and all offensive operations have been reactivated,” the president wrote in a statement on Twitter.

The four regions constitute a stronghold for the guerrillas in the south of the country.

Minors from the Murui community had been forcibly recruited by the rebels, who distanced themselves from the peace agreement that disarmed the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

This weekend, authorities reported that the young people were murdered on the border between the departments of Caquetá and Amazonas by members of the Carolina Ramírez front of the so-called Central General Staff (EMC) of the FARC, the most influential dissident group.

“It was an atrocious fact that questionthe desire to build a country in peace. There is no justification for this type of crime”, added Petro.

"Does not make sense"

Led by Iván Mordisco, the EMC is part of the illegal armed groups with which Petro wants to negotiate and disarm within his “Total Peace” policy.

In April, the dissident faction stated that it was ready to begin negotiations in May, but these discussions never materialized.

On December 31, Petro declared a bilateral ceasefire with this group of dissidents and four other main armed structures operating in Colombia.

However, three truces have already fallen: with the ELN guerrillas, which have refused to end hostilities despite peace negotiations with the government since November, and with the Gulf Clan cartel, which has attacked the public security force and the civilian population.

“If the ceasefire is not effective in certain territories to protect the lives and integrity of the population, it makes no sense to persist in it,” Petro insisted.

Multiply dead

In a note sent to the press, the EMC harshly criticized the government, without mentioning the murder of indigenous minors.

“The unilateral rupture will trigger war and multiply the deaths, injuries and prisoners”, says the text.

“From our perspective, this was the least serious government to establish negotiations, to the point of not even having installed the truce verification mechanisms”, added the rebels. The group asked the president to outline a peace policy “without improvisation, without pressure and without violations”.

The peace and security strategy of Petro, the first leftist to govern Colombia, is increasingly criticized by the opposition, which questionthe ability of the Military Forces and the president not to give in to pressure from illegal groups.

Without the truce with the EMC, the ELN and the Gulf Clan, only the truce would remain with the Second Marquetalia, another faction of dissidents led by the former number two of the FARC, Iván Márquez, and the Conquistador Self-Defense Forces of the Sierra Nevada, a group paramilitary in Santa Marta (north).

Read also

Fire in student dormitory leaves 20 dead in Guyana

At least 20 people died in a fire in a school dormitory in the central region of Guyana, the government announced in a statement released in the early hours of Monday (22). The fire occurred in a student residence in Mahdia, a mining town in the center of this small country, located north of Brazil and which also borders Venezuela and Suriname.

* The text of this article was partially generated by artificial intelligence tools, state-of-the-art language models that assist in the preparation, review, translation and summarization of texts. Text entries were created by the Curto News and responses from AI tools were used to improve the final content.
It is important to highlight that AI tools are just tools, and the final responsibility for the published content lies with the Curto News. By using these tools responsibly and ethically, our objective is to expand communication possibilities and democratize access to quality information. 🤖