Colombia: Guerrilla Leaders Urge President Duque's Resignation

The leaders of the extinct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - People's Army (FARC-EP) demanded the resignation of President Ivan Duque, who is leading a government "stained with blood, drug trafficking, and electoral fraud."

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In a statement issued from the clandestinity, the Peace Agreement's former negotiator-chief Ivan Marquez condemned the systematic extermination of ex-combatants.

This Monday, the ex-combatant Yovany Sandoval was found dead in the Cauca Department. With his murder, the number of ex-guerillas assassinated rises to 230 since the Peace Agreement signed in Havana in 2016.

"Ex-President Alvaro Uribe and his successor Duque impose past decades of paramilitary violence as Colombia sought to inaugurate a new era of peace," the guerrillas condemned.

The declarations were made one year after the former guerrilla announced its rearmament because of Duque's betrayal of the Peace Agreement.

"This war that we are living is established by criminal minds that believe they can hide their alliances with drug trafficking," the leaders denounced.

The combatants also scorned the Duque administration's efforts to halt with bullets the social mobilizations that are shaking the country today.

"Duque must leave the Presidency for being an illegitimate leader," they said in the message, which was also signed by guerrillas Jesus Santrich, El Paisa, Aldinever Morantes, Walter Mendoza, and Romaña.