“In Iran they must be tweeting about Cauca,” a tweeter wrote sarcastically on X. And another responded: “and in Palestine.” They were referring to President Gustavo Petro who usually launches a barrage of messages on that social network when it comes to the war in the Gaza Strip, but when it comes to condemning the tragic wave of violence in Cauca the president seems to be more parsimonious.
One could say – without leaving irony aside – that the criticism leveled at him is exaggerated, because President Petro has dedicated trills to this humanitarian drama that has been going on since last Friday when the violence in Cauca worsened. He has published two trills. On Monday morning he wrote: “The situation in Cauca is unacceptable. We will not tolerate continuing to terrorize the population with terrorist attacks” and he announced a permanent security council. And that same Monday afternoon he published the other: “The offensive against the EMC (Central General Staff) in Cauca is total.”
What definitely did not go well for the President is that he did not say anything about the bomb with which these criminals, on the highway that goes to the municipality of Miranda (Cauca), ended the life of Esteban Villafañe, a 10-year-old boy. and left their mother seriously injured. The president ended up agreeing with those who criticize him because his silence on the case of the Villafañe child is not explained, knowing that just a few weeks before, on April 13, he demanded that a journalist condemn the death of the children in Palestine: “He condemned the death of any child due to war. “Did you, Vicky, do it?”
We have no doubt that President Gustavo Petro is as hurt by the death of the minor in Cauca as by the deaths of the Palestinians, but by being so vocal about the latter and remaining practically mute about the first, he gives rise to controversy.
Beyond what is said or omitted in that virtual world of social networks, what matters is the real war that is killing people in the flesh and is cornering and removing the communities in the north of their homeland. Cauca and in the south of the Valley. What is happening is very serious: in less than 24 hours, at the beginning of this week, that criminal group called EMC attacked ten municipalities and the attacks have been intensifying since last week. They attacked Cajibío; They killed two indigenous people in Caldono; They destroyed the police station in Morales and planted a bomb in a hotel in Jamundí; They attacked Jambaló and Corinth; They harassed Dagua and attacked Suárez, the homeland of Vice President Francia Márquez, with explosives; in addition to the tragic bombing in which the child Villafañe died.
In this area, the largest number of the so-called FARC dissidents in all of Colombia is concentrated today. Four columns operate – the Dagoberto Ramos, the Jaime Martínez, the Carlos Patiño, and the recently created new western bloc –, all from the alias Iván Mordisco (EMC) gang. And as if that were not enough, there are also the Nueva Marquetalia and units of the ELN.
It must be said that the violence in Cauca did not begin during the government of Gustavo Petro – and also, it seems that it will not end with him either. But what has happened is that during this government the anxiety has worsened and such an environment of chaos has been created that it has become the best breeding ground for violence to advance at a frightening speed.
President Gustavo Petro’s total peace strategy has given tremendously adverse results. A researcher of the war in that territory told EL COLOMBIANO: “For a long time the dissidents were able to make and break due to bilateral cessations. While these bilateral cessations took place, they continued killing social leaders and recruiting young people. They complied with the ceasefire against the Army, but they continued to kill the civilian population and continued and continue to gain ground.” The Association of indigenous councils of Northern Cauca denounced that 817 indigenous minors have been illegally recruited by these armed groups.
The Ombudsman’s Office presented a report according to which during the ceasefires the presence of the two FARC dissidents increased in 50 municipalities, the ELN in 40 and the Clan del Golfo in 20. On the other hand, opposition senator Paloma Valencia denounced in Congress that “Colombia today has more or less 16,000 men under arms, which means that we returned to the periods before the Havana agreement.”
What should be done? It is crucial that President Gustavo Petro make drastic decisions, his peace process is not going anywhere, it makes no sense to negotiate with criminal structures, nor give them the idea that they can expand without the State putting any brakes on them. To the extent that these criminal groups are not fought with the full weight of authority and the law, they continue to grow and can put the State in check.
