Colombia has decided to ramp up troop deployment as it launches a fresh offensive against illegal armed groups, following the collapse of multiple ceasefires and stalled peace talks, the country’s military chief has said.
Leftist President Gustavo Petro took office in 2022 promising to pursue an end to six decades of conflict through peace accords and surrender deals with guerrillas and heavily armed crime gangs, but talks have faltered despite repeated temporary ceasefires.
Petro has now ordered increased offensives against the Marxist National Liberation Army (ELN), five factions of former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels who reject that group’s 2016 peace deal, the Clan del Golfo criminal group and other smaller gangs.
Territorial Control
“Today there is not one ceasefire, we are in a total military offensive to counteract those illegal armed groups and it’s up to us to keep winning territory,” Admiral Francisco Cubides, the overall commander of Colombia’s armed forces, told Reuters in an interview on Saturday in the Pacific port city of Buenaventura.
“Security begins with territorial control and that’s where we are advancing. We have talked about increases in troops, increases in capacity and as we are able to do that, we are going to achieve more territorial control,” Cubides said.
New Soldiers, Renewed Offensive
Colombia’s armed forces are in the process of gradually adding 16,000 new troops as training and funds become available, he said.
The renewed offensive is focused on six regions – including the jungles of Catatumbo, along the northeastern border with Venezuela, and the mountains and jungle of the country’s southwest – which are strategic areas for drug trafficking and illegal gold mining, armed groups’ top sources of financing.
All armed groups took advantage of the government’s desire for peace to increase their territory, Cubides said, and boost their manpower, which has risen 45% over the last three years to around 22,000.
Recent mass kidnappings, committed by civilians the government says are being forced by armed groups to hold soldiers hostage, have increased pressure on government troops.
Fifty-seven soldiers held by civilians were rescued in El Plateado in Cauca province last week. The town, located near extensive plantations of coca, the base ingredient in cocaine, is the focus of an armed forces operation launched in October 2024 that is meant to push out a faction of dissident FARC rebels.
That mass kidnapping followed a similar incident in the same region in March, in which 29 soldiers were freed after being held for several days.
Investment, Challenges
The government has promised huge investment in roads, schools, hospitals and public services in the area, but says the rebel presence has impeded the effort.
“As we take away illegal industries from illegal armed groups and communities change, there will be real tranquility and the conditions to be able to transform the area,” Cubides said.
(With inputs from Reuters)
