Guerrillas attack military base in Cali, Colombia’s 3rd largest city

Alleged EMC guerrillas carried out a mortar attack on the 3rd Division army base in Colombia’s third largest city Cali.

The attack against the army base in southern Cali took place around 11PM on Thursday, according to the military.

The Cali attack, which damaged the homes of military commanders, took place hours before an attack on a police station in Yamundi, a town just south of Cali.

Half an hour after the attack on the Cali army base, a grenade exploded at the base of anti-extortion and anti-kidnapping unit Gaula in Tumaco, a Pacific port city on the Ecuadorean border.

Nobody was injured in either of the attacks.

The attacks took place amid a resumption of fighting between the military and the EMC’s Western Coordinating Command (CCO), a guerrilla division that operates in southwest Colombia.

Following the killing of an indigenous community leader in the Cauca province, President Gustavo Petro suspended a ceasefire with the EMC in the area where the CCO operates.

The EMC was founded by dissident FARC guerrillas from southern Colombia months before the beginning of a peace process involving the now-defunct guerrilla organization.

The FARC dissident organization has since expanded its territorial control, particularly in southwest Colombia where the EMC helped rearm multiple demobilized FARC units.

The Petro administration has been trying to negotiate peace with the guerrillas since taking office in August of 2022.

These talks have been marred by problems caused by guerrilla attacks on civilian targets and fighting between rival armed groups in EMC territory.

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