Defense Minister Ivan Velasquez suspended a ceasefire with dissident FARC guerrilla group EMC in southwest Colombia on Sunday.
The president ordered the military to resume attacks on the EMC in response to a guerrilla attack on an indigenous community in the Cauca province.
The ceasefire will be lifted in Cauca, Valle del Cauca and Nariño.
The suspension followed an escalated conflict in the municipality of Toribio where alleged EMC guerrillas attacked an indigenous community that had thwarted the kidnapping of a student from school.
The subsequent guerrilla attack on the community left one indigenous leader dead and multiple members of the community injured.
Following the attack, regional indigenous authorities asked the government to suspend the ceasefire and asked the International Criminal Court to investigate the ongoing “extermination” of indigenous communities in Colombia.
We call on the International Criminal Court to initiate investigations into these acts, which lead to the physical and cultural extermination of our communities. We also request the national government to suspend the bilateral ceasefire signed with the Central General Staff of the FARC dissidents, as they cannot be sitting at a negotiating table while they continue to commit crimes against humanity in the territories.
Indigenous leaders
The government’s unilateral suspension of the ceasefire comes less than a year after an alleged EMC attack on an indigenous community in the southern Putumayo province triggered a suspension of the ceasefire in that part of the country.
Attempts to negotiate the demobilization and disarmament of the EMC have been marred by violent outbursts since Petro took office in August of 2022.
The EMC leadership used to be part of guerrilla group FARC, but split from this organization in 2016, months before the FARC commanders agreed to end their decades-long insurgency.
Dissidents like the EMC have since taken control of much of the territories in southern Colombia that used to be controlled by the FARC.
