At least 15 members of the Carlos Patiño front, which operates under the umbrella of the self-proclaimed Central General Staff (EMC), have died this Thursday after the Colombian Army attacked them with artillery in a rural area of Algeria, in the south of the department of Cauca. This was reported by the Ministry of Defense and the Military Forces, which added that 12 injuries were also recorded. The President of the Republic, Gustavo Petro, has displayed the military result in his X account and has indicated that it is the greatest achievement obtained in the operations against the federation of dissident groups of the extinct FARC. Some of the EMC structures, such as the attacked front, have withdrawn from the peace negotiations with the Government. “We must not play with peace, if it is war it is war. Stopping war means being serious about peace,” he declared.
We must not play with peace, if it is war it is war. Stopping war means being serious about Peace. The EMC in Cauca has not had it when killing the civilian population.
This is the biggest action against him. https://t.co/ZEZMjOXxxu
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) April 25, 2024
The attack targeted a camp, from which the armed men organized attacks against the uniformed personnel and the civilian population in the area, according to authorities. “The criminal and financial actions of this armed group are significantly affected, given that areas of their interference are recovered through which they mobilize narcotics, the product of drug trafficking,” the Army said in a statement. According to the Ministry of Defenseweapons “with millimeter precision” were used that avoided collateral damage to the civilian population.
The operations against the EMC, according to the Army, have been carried out “day and night” for 15 days in the area of the Micay River canyon, which serves as a communication route between the populated Andean area and the coastline on the Pacific Ocean. In total, according to the military forces, there have been 31 combats and more than 30 deaths since the national government suspended the ceasefire with the EMC in Nariño, Cauca and Valle del Cauca in mid-March. There is also the rescue in this last month of about 20 minors who had been forcibly recruited.
The Central General Staff, the largest group of FARC dissidents, is fractured. Last week it was confirmed that the structures that still follow the leadership of Iván Mordisco no longer have a presence at the peace dialogue table with the Executive. They are those of Cauca, Valle del Cauca and Nariño, the most belligerent and those that have carried out recent attacks against military objectives and indigenous communities. On the other hand, the groups that operate in Catatumbo, Magdalena Medio, Meta, Caquetá and Putumayo are still part of the conversations. It is estimated that the partition has been in half, although there is no confirmed data.
“The important thing is that the sector that remains at the table is firm with the agreements and that we are developing a very detailed agenda of regional dialogues,” the Government's chief negotiator, Camilo González Posso, said last week. The other, that of Mordisco, is the one that is already in open war against the military forces.
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Violence has raged in Cauca, where the dissidents of the extinct FARC and the National Liberation Army (ELN), the oldest active guerrilla in Colombia, operate. According to the Institute of Development and Peace Studies (Indepaz), the department recorded the highest number of murders of social leaders and human rights defenders last year, with 38 of the 188 cases recorded in Colombia. It was also the territory with the most ex-combatants murdered, with 7 of 44 victims. “In the department of Cauca, Nasa indigenous people who oppose the abuses committed by armed groups have been threatened and murdered. Clashes between armed groups have left more than 6,500 people displaced or confined,” Human Rights Watch said in its world report 2024.
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