President Gustavo Petro~, announced in a statement that due to the FARC-EMC group’s disregard for the cease-fire, on Monday that it is suspending a cease-fire with rebels after they are alleged to have recently killed four Indigenous people, at least three of whom were minors, in the south of the nation as they attempted to elude forced recruitment. the military will begin strikes on its units operating in the provinces of Caqueta, Putumayo, Guaviare, and Meta.
The statement read, “There is no point in persisting if a bilateral ceasefire cannot effectively protect the life and integrity of the entire population in certain territories.” However, the government asserted that it will continue to uphold a cease-fire with FARC-EMC in regions of the nation where attacks on civilians have lessened. It also announced that it would soon name representatives to oversee peace negotiations with the rebel organization.
Last Monday, indigenous organizations accused the FARC-EMC of executing four individuals who had escaped from one of the group’s recruitment camps in the province of Putumayo. At least three of them, according to the authorities, were children. The administration of President Gustavo Petro declared the killings to be war crimes and a “assault on peace” on Saturday. It also said that attacks on Colombia’s indigenous people were “inexcusable.”
Former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia leaders who refused to sign on to a 2016 peace agreement with the Colombian government in which more than 14,000 rebels surrendered their weapons lead FARC-EMC. As part of a plan to launch multiple rounds of peace negotiations with various armed groups, the Petro administration issued an order Dec. 31 ordering Colombia’s military to stop attacking the country’s various armed organizations.
A cease-fire with the criminal group known as the Gulf Clan ended in March when the group opposed government efforts to crack down on unauthorized mining. The National Liberation Army, or ELN, the country’s largest rebel organization, rejected the government’s initial cease-fire offer and recently put peace negotiations on hold after Petro claimed that its younger commanders were not driven by political objectives but rather by drug trafficking profits.
Petro called the approach “total peace,” but it hasn’t produced many benefits thus far. Attacks on civilians continue, even though fighting between the military and armed groups has subsided in several regions of the nation.
News on SNBC13.com
