Far-right pundits called on voters for support in the upcoming local and regional elections, claiming that guerrillas were “taking Bogota” despite a ceasefire.
The claim followed a video that was published on social media by far-right former Interior Minister Nancy Patricia Gutierrez, who is running for governor in the central Cundinamarca province.
In the video, self-proclaimed fighters of the Joint Eastern Command of guerrilla group EMC said they would be attacking multiple towns in the Bogota region.
The alleged guerrillas did not wear uniforms of the now-defunct guerrilla group FARC’s largest dissident faction and said to belong to a unit that never before made a public statement.
The president of Gutierrez’s far-right National Salvation party, Enrique Gomez, subsequently claimed that President Gustavo Petro “is a guerrilla and… you have to vote for our friend Nancy Patricia Gutierrez and the list of National Salvation so you are represented when the FARC again devour this beautiful province.”
Far-right pundit Fernando Londoño, a founder of the fascist Democratic Center party, said in his radio program that “they are taking Bogota, they are taking its surroundings, all of them, all of Bogota.”
Far-right pundit Fernando Londoño
According to peace negotiator Camilo Gonzalez, who signed a ceasefire with the EMC last week, the video is one of multiple fake guerrilla statements that have appeared in multiple parts of the country over the past few days.
Peace negotiator Camilo Gonzalez
The allegedly fake guerrilla publications would be the work of “camouflaged enemies of peace” trying to influence Sunday’s elections and ongoing peace talks with the EMC, Gonzalez told television news broadcast Noticias Uno.