Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro on Sunday ordered the security forces to resume attacks against paramilitary organization AGC.
In a message posted on social media website Twitter, Petro said that “we will not allow them to continue sowing terror among.”
Petro previously said a member of the AGC had opened fire against a police officer without specifying where or when.
The president last week already threatened to end a ceasefire with the AGC over their alleged involvement in violent miner strikes in the Antioquia province.
The latest announcement came hours after claims by Antioquia Governor Anibal Gaviria that at least four trucks and two buses were incinerated during the protests in the Bajo Cauca and Northeastern Antioquia regions.
Human rights organizations have urged authorities not to stigmatize the miners who declared a strike in response to a “war on illegal mining” announced by Defense Minister Ivan Velasquez earlier this month.
Multiple illegal armed groups are active in the region where the mining strikes have all but shut down the regional economy.
Colombia’s ‘total war’ on illegal mining shuts down gold mining region
Petro in January suspended a ceasefire with the ELN, one the groups that is also active in Antioquia’s gold mining region.
The ceasefires were meant to facilitate negotiations with at least five illegal armed groups.
Preliminary talks with the AGC have been blocked by Prosecutor General Francisco Barbosa.
Consequently, the government and the paramilitaries have not been able to agree on a mechanism that would allow the monitoring of alleged ceasefire violations.
The AGC announced a bilateral ceasefire and their interest in taking part in the government’s “Total Peace” policy after Petro took office in August last year.
The paramilitaries have since then dramatically reduced attacks against the security forces, but the AGC continued violence against communities in regions under their control, according to non-governmental organizations that monitor armed conflict in Colombia.
