Criticism of Colombian President Gustavo Petro's management over the escalation of violence by FARC dissidents intensified this Saturday following a new attack in the troubled Cauca department and confirmation that seven minors died in a military operation in the jungle of Guaviare. Cauca, one of the areas hardest hit by the Colombian armed conflict and disputes over drug trafficking routes, woke up to a new attack with drones, explosives, and rifle fire against a police post in the Mondomo district of Santander de Quilichao. This attack, attributed by Petro to the Central High Command (EMC), the main FARC dissident group, caused damage to homes and businesses in the area, though without any casualties. In the same department, located between the mountains of the Andes and the Pacific Ocean, the Army reported today on a kidnapped soldier and three others injured in clashes yesterday against the Carlos Patiño group of dissidents in the municipality of Balboa. «If we let the 150 men of Iván Mordisco advance through the jungle, they will ambush the 20 young soldiers who were at the forefront just a few kilometers away,» stated the head of state on his X account, in response to criticism over the death of minors. Petro, who assumed the presidency in August 2022 with the promise of resuming dialogues with armed groups to advance towards so-called 'total peace,' added that if he had not ordered the bombing, he would now be questioned for allowing an ambush. Petro's critics recalled that when the left was in the opposition, it condemned bombings against guerrillas in which minors also died, and old posts from the president criticizing a similar bombing in Guaviare during Iván Duque's government (2018-2022) appeared on social media. In 2019, then-Defense Minister Duque, Guillermo Botero, resigned after the left opposition held a debate in the Senate over another bombing that killed 14 FARC dissidents, including seven minors. In response to opposition politicians who reproached Petro for this week's bombing, comparing it to the 2019 incident, Petro stated: «It is not a war crime, we had no other method to defend the soldiers' lives.» Governor demands firm action Amid this new escalation of violence—which has hit 12 municipalities in Cauca in the last week—the governor of that region, Octavio Guzmán, urged Petro and his Defense Minister, Pedro Sánchez Suárez, to respond «with all the capacity» of the state and «with firm actions» against the dissidents commanded by Néstor Vera, alias Iván Mordisco, the most wanted man in the country. «These violent events demonstrate that the current measures are not generating effective results (...) What is happening completely overwhelms our institutional and operational capacities,» Guzmán said on social media. The governor reiterated his call for a «total militarization» of the Pan-American Highway, the main highway in the southwest of the country, where there was also a car bomb attack yesterday that left one dead, in addition to an attack against Senator Temístocles Ortega. Guzmán also mentioned the order Petro gave this week to bomb the groups of Iván Mordisco in Arauca, on the border with Venezuela, and in Guaviare, where the military operation left 20 dissidents dead, including seven minors, as confirmed today by the Legal Medicine Institute. «Mr. President, just as firm decisions were made in Guaviare, if it is necessary to adopt measures of the same firmness in Cauca, do it for the life and integrity of our people,» concluded the regional leader. Children killed in combat. The death of these seven children in the recent military bombings in Guaviare put Petro in an awkward position. In the last two months, the head of state has been one of the most critical voices in Latin America against what he calls «extrajudicial killings» by the United States in the waters of the Caribbean and Pacific within the framework of the war on drugs, demanding respect for international humanitarian law (IHL). It also calls into question the promise of the leftist leader, a former member of the demobilized M-19 guerrilla group, to comply with IHL during these military operations against armed groups that, according to several national and international organizations, have increased their violent activity in the country in recent years. «Of course, any death is lamentable, especially that of minors.»
