BOGOTÁ, Colombia: Colombian government on Sunday suspended a peace agreement with the Central General Staff (EMC) rebel armed group in three different parts of the country.
The government took the decision after violence including an attack on an Indigenous group left one woman dead.
The EMC, dissident guerillas who parted ways from the rebel FARC group when it signed a peace agreement with the government in 2016, started talks with President Gustavo Petro’s administration last year.
Since his election in 2022, Petro wanted to put an end to six decades of conflict between the country’s security forces, rebel groups and drug gangs.
However, his peace efforts have faced multiple setbacks with the guerrillas, who are involved in trafficking and are accused by rights groups of taking advantage of different ceasefires to expand their influence and capture more territory.
Sunday’s announcement came after the EMC failed to comply with the ceasefire. according to a decree from the defense ministry the military would resume actions against rebels in the departments of Narino, Cauca and Valle del Cauca.
However, the truce will prevail in other regions, including the Amazon and along the border with Venezuela.
Meanwhile, officials in the municipality of Toribio said that a 52-year-old women was killed in an attack on an Indigenous community.
Petro’s government has suspended the truce last year after four Indigenous people who defected from the EMC’s ranks were killed
The EMC group comprises of some 3,500 fighters and controls drug trafficking routes along the borders with Ecuador and Venezuela.
