At least two soldiers were killed by alleged EMC guerrillas that intensified attacks on security forces in the southwest of Colombia.
The soldiers were killed in a guerrilla attack on Morales, a town in the war-torn Cauca province.
The fatal attack came hours after an explosion in front of a hotel in Jamundi, Valle del Cauca, where police were staying.
According to Cauca Governor Octavio Guzman, guerrillas also attacked the town of Suarez.
The National Army’s 3rd Division said that it had sent extra troops to the south of the Valle del Cauca province and north of the Cauca province to repel the guerilla offensive.
President Gustavo Petro ordered Defense Minister Ivan Velasquez and the commanders of the armed forces to travel to Cauca and lead operations against the EMC in the region.
“We will not tolerate that the population continues to be terrorized by terrorist attacks,” said Petro on social media platform X.
Cauca’s governor said on X that “we urgently need international intervention and seek dialogue with a ceasefire.”
Petro suspended a ceasefire with the EMC in southwest Colombia in March and froze talks with the organization’s main commanders in April.
How peace talks divided Colombia’s EMC guerrillas
In response, the guerrillas of the EMC’s Western Bloc stepped up their attacks on the security forces and local authorities in Valle del Cauca, Cauca and Nariño.
The surge in violence triggered indigenous leaders from the Northern Cauca region to ring the alarm about an imminent risk of extermination of members of their communities.
Indigenous in southwest Colombia “at imminent risk of extermination”
Petro and the EMC announced their intentions to negotiate peace after Petro took office in August of 2022.
These negotiations were hampered by guerrilla attacks on civilian targets and combat between the EMC and rival groups that operate in southwestern Colombia.