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News > Colombia

Colombia Suspends Ceasefire With FARC Dissidence

  • Indigenous people and soldiers get ready to search for the missing teenagers, May 22, 2023.

    Indigenous people and soldiers get ready to search for the missing teenagers, May 22, 2023. | Photo: Twitter/ @elmundoes

Published 22 May 2023
Opinion

The murder of four Indigenous minors, which occurred in the Putumayo department, was defined by President Petro as "a slap to peace" during a security council.

On Monday, the Colombian government partially suspended the bilateral ceasefire with the Central General Staff (EMC), a dissidence of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

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"We inform about the bilateral ceasefire with this armed group in the departments of Meta, Caqueta, Guaviare, and Putumayo. All offensive operations are reactivated," Colombian authorities said, announcing that the ceasefire will take effect in the next 72 hours.

President Gustavo Petro made this decision in response to the murder of four Indigenous minors who tried to escape after being forcibly recruited by the EMC's Carolina Ramirez Front.

This murder was denounced on Saturday by the National Organization of the Indigenous Peoples of the Colombian Amazon (OPIAC).

"There is no justification whatsoever for this kind of crime," the Colombian government said, noting that the EMC incurred in a "serious violation of International Humanitarian Law."

The tweet reads, "Petro convened an extraordinary security council due to the murder of four Indigenous minors."

"If the ceasefire is not effective to protect the life and integrity of the entire population, there is no point in persisting with it," Colombian authorities said.

On December 31, 2022, Petro decreed a ceasefire with five armed groups as part of a process aimed at achieving total pacification in Colombian territory.

Among those groups were the guerrilla of the National Liberation Army (ELN), which publicly ignored the agreement; the Central General Staff and the Second Marquetalia, which are dissidents of the FARC; the Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AGC) and the Sierra Nevada Paramilitaries.

The murder of the Indigenous minors, which occurred in the Putumayo department bordering Ecuador, was defined by Petro as "a slap to peace" during a security council on Sunday.

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