Less than a month after the freezing of peace talks with the ELN guerrillas, it is the turn of progress with dissident bands of the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) to be called into question.

The Colombian government announced on Sunday March 17 the suspension in three departments of the country of the truce concluded with the main dissident faction of the Farc, after a deadly attack carried out by the rebels against a group of indigenous people.

"Given the non-compliance with the ceasefire by the Farc Central Staff (EMC) present in Nariño, Cauca and Valle del Cauca, we order its suspension and the resumption of actions offensives against them", indicates the decree of the Ministry of Defense.

The truce is maintained in other regions, notably in the Amazon and on the border with Venezuela.

Read alsoColombia: six-month ceasefire agreement with the five main armed groups

Earlier, President Gustavo Petro had reported an attack the day before in the locality of Toribio, in the department of Cauca (southwest), accusing the EMC of being at the initiative.

Armed men tried to kidnap a teenager but his community managed to oppose them.

“The response of these criminals was to shoot indiscriminately at the community,” denounced the indigenous authority of the municipality in a press release.

A 52-year-old woman was fatally injured by a gunshot to the face, according to this source.

Gustavo Petro assured that the Indians attacked had attended a public event organized by his government in Cali (southwest) on Friday.

A truce already hampered and suspended

The government and the EMC, which rejects the historic peace agreement signed in 2016 with the Marxist guerrillas, suspended hostilities at the beginning of 2023, an agreement broken several times by the rebels.

In mid-2023, Gustavo Petro suspended the truce for several months following the assassination of four indigenous miners who had defected from the organization's ranks.

Peace talks have been launched between the EMC, said to have nearly 3,500 troops, and the government in October 2023.

Elected in 2022 as the first left-wing president in the country's history, Gustavo Petro is trying to implement an ambitious policy of "total peace" to disarm the armed groups that remain active in the regions and definitively put an end to the violence that is tearing Colombia apart. for more than half a century.

With AFP

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