Colombia partially suspends ceasefire with armed faction EMC

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
18 Mar 2024 02:11

The Colombian Defense Ministry says the announcement came after the EMC's "non-compliance with the ceasefire."

A rebel of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) stands next to a flag during the release of hostage and Colombian Army soldier Juan David Estrada, in Tacueyo, southwest Colombia, Tuesday, September 26, 2023. (AP Photo/Andres Quintero)

Colombia on Sunday suspended a truce with the armed rebel faction the Central General Staff (EMC) in three different parts of the country, citing violence including an attack on an Indigenous group that left one woman dead.

The EMC, guerillas who broke off from the rebel FARC group when it signed a peace pact with the government in 2016, opened talks with President Gustavo Petro's administration last year.

Since his election in 2022, leftist Petro has sought to put an end to six decades of conflict between the country's security forces, guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries, and drug gangs.

Sunday's announcement came after the EMC's "non-compliance with the ceasefire," and would see the military resume "offensive actions" against them in the departments of Narino, Cauca and Valle del Cauca, according to a decree from the Colombian Defense Ministry.

However, the truce remains in force in other regions, including the Amazon and along the border with Venezuela.

Sunday's announcement of the truce suspension came after officials in the municipality of Toribio said an attack on an Indigenous community there had left a 52-year-old woman dead and a man wounded Saturday.

Petro's government has suspended the truce before, doing so for several months last year after four Indigenous people who defected from the EMC's ranks were killed.