In the early hours of this Tuesday, a new attack took place in Cauca. A confrontation between the FARC dissidents and the Colombian Army has left seven soldiers dead and seven wounded, according to President Gustavo Petro. The president held an extraordinary security council in Bogotá, and at the end of it he recounted that the so-called Jaime Martínez Column carried out a premeditated attack on the Army in the municipality of Buenos Aires, in the north of the department of Cauca. “The public force is not going to leave the Cauca region,” the president assured at the end of the meeting.
The ambush occurred this morning when members of the so-called Jaime Martínez Front harassed and attacked the Army with rifles and grenades in the Munchique village of Buenos Aires. The path is in the mountainous area of Naya, on the slope of the Andes that descends towards the coast on the Pacific Ocean. “Obviously it has to do with drug trafficking routes,” Petro said.
The president revealed the names of six of the dead soldiers: Yan Rodríguez, Jerson Mamián, Jonathan Ordóñez, Armando Vélez, Alexander Portocarrero and John Isaak, “all between 18 and 20 years old.”
The Jaime Martínez Front, one of the most active in this area of Cauca and responsible for attacks on indigenous communities and the murder of social and indigenous leaders, is integrated into the Western Coordinating Command of the FARC dissidents, which responds to orders , supposedly, of “Iván Mordisco”. It is one of the two large groups of dissidents of the FARC; the other is the so-called Segunda Marquetalia by Iván Márquez.
Several weeks ago “Iván Mordisco” made public his commitment to total peace and to start dialogues with the Government and in this way asked his ranks for a ceasefire, alluding to not attacking if they are not under attack, an order that is not the first time it is breached. Petro has explained that for now there is no open dialogue with them.
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“Military action does not stop until there is really a real willingness to negotiate,” the president assured.
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