Highlights: Colombia: a vast military operation against FARC dissidence leaves several dead. At least eight people have been killed in southwest Colombia since the start of an offensive by the Colombian army against the main dissident faction of the Farc. This week, the army announced the launch of a vast offensive, called “Operation Mantus”, to “curb the criminal action of the EMC in the southwest of the country’s coast and major cocaine production areas.

At least eight people have been killed in southwest Colombia since the start of an offensive by the Colombian army against the main dissident faction of the Farc, after the suspension...

Colombia: a vast military operation against FARC dissidence leaves several dead

At least eight people have been killed in southwest Colombia since the start of an offensive by the Colombian army against the main dissident faction of the Farc, after the suspension of the truce decided by the government.

This week, the army announced the launch of a vast offensive, called “Operation Mantus”, to “curb the criminal action of the EMC in the southwest of the country” (illustration). AFP - JOAQUIN SARMIENTO

By: RFI with AFP

Over the past week, the operation left "

eight dead and seventeen injured

" in the ranks of this armed faction, the commander of the military forces in the Cauca region - in the south - told AFP. west -, General Federico Mejia, saying it was based on intercepted communications between the rebels.

The victims, General Mejia said, were recorded in the Micay canyon, a landlocked mountain territory in the Cauca department and one of the strongholds of the

Central Staff

(EMC), the main armed faction of the dissidents. who reject the 2016 peace agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). On Tuesday, the situation in the Micay Canyon was calm and normal.

On Sunday March 24, in the locality of El Plateado, under control of the EMC, but near the first positions of the army, a few hundred meters from the edge of the town, the situation was also calm; even if sporadic skirmishes have been reported in recent days in the mountains overlooking this locality, according to an EMC officer on site.

Curbing the criminal actions of the EMC in the southwest of the country

On March 17, the government announced the suspension in three departments of the country of the truce concluded with this group, after several incidents involving the EMC. This weekend, the army announced the launch of a vast offensive, called “Operation Mantus”, to “

curb the criminal action of the EMC in the southwest of the country

”. This offensive provides for the deployment of 32,000 soldiers in the three neighboring departments affected by the end of the truce, all three along the Pacific coast and major cocaine production areas.

“

Aerial assets, notably helicopters and drones, have been deployed

,” said the head of the army, General Helder Giraldo, according to whom the army’s priority was to “

protect the civilian population and anticipate any action that these criminal groups may intend to carry out, not only in the three departments concerned, but throughout the country

.”

Since the start of “Operation Mantus” on March 20, “

constant fighting

” has been reported and “

eleven in-depth operations

” have been carried out against the dissidents, according to General Mejia. Historically without almost any state presence, like many isolated regions of Colombia, the Micay Canyon is one of the main areas of cocaine production, under the tight control of the EMC.

Read alsoColombia: the ELN guerrilla ends an “armed strike” after being accused of violating the truce

Colombia: a vast military operation against FARC dissidence leaves several dead

Colombia: a vast military operation against FARC dissidence leaves several dead

Curbing the criminal actions of the EMC in the southwest of the country

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