Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro has given orders for the military to capture Ivan Mordisco, the top leader of the Estado Mayor Central, a dissident faction of the now-disbanded FARC rebels who have rejected the 2016 peace agreement with the government. This move has further strained the already fragile relations between the illegal armed group and the Colombian government as they engage in peace talks.
Petro made the announcement during an event in Sucre province on Thursday night, emphasizing his desire for Mordisco to be captured alive. He stated, “I want them to capture Ivan Mordisco alive – don’t kill him (…) I don’t want them to kill him out there, I want him alive, because he’s going to prison, to talk,” in front of a local crowd.
At the moment, there has been no response from the EMC regarding Petro’s directive.
The decision to target Mordisco for capture came after a recent escalation in tensions between the government and the EMC. The government suspended the bilateral ceasefire in three provinces following an attack by EMC members on an Indigenous community that resulted in the death of one of its leaders.
The peace talks are part of Petro’s broader strategy for achieving lasting peace in Colombia, a country that has been embroiled in armed conflict for nearly sixty years, claiming the lives of over 450,000 people.
Some analysts have expressed concerns about the potential implications of the ceasefire suspension in Narino, Cauca, and Valle del Cauca, as well as the verbal sparring between Petro and Mordisco, who accused the president of betrayal. These developments are seen as posing a threat to the continuation of peace negotiations between the two parties.
(Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta; Writing by Oliver Griffin)
