Total Peace is failing. Not only has it not had results, but it has strengthened groups outside the law. According to Government figures, in the last year and a half the Central General Staff (Emc) went from 3,545 to more than 4,000 members. The second Marquetalia, from 1663 to 1751. The ELN, from 5,851 to 6,158. And the Gulf Clan, from 4,061 to 4,999 people.
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But that’s not the worst. The Ministry of Defense has reported that the Emc went from having influence in 117 municipalities in 2022, to 172 in 2023. That is, it expanded by 32%, reaching areas where peace had been achieved, such as the Huila, Valle del Cauca and southern Tolima. El Caguán was too small for this transfer of territory in which almost half of Colombia was handed over to armed groups.
Specifically in Cauca, before the Total Peace there were two structures with focused control: the Jaime Martínez in the municipalities of the Western Cordillera of Algeria and López de Micay and the Dagoberto Ramos, in the mountainous area in the east of the department. With Total Peace, the new Western Block was created, the Carlos Patiño Column, the Yair Bermúdez 57 Front, and the Adán Izquierdo Company. In addition, the Nueva Marquetalia arrived in the mountains of the Central Cordillera, where they already dominate the Hermosa Canyon, Planadas and the north of Huila, controlling with this strategy more than 15 municipalities in the area, where they set up checkpoints. to those who enter, carry out curfews, etc. The conclusion is clear: with the Total Peace, the dissidents in Cauca doubled their area of influence.
The failure and deinstitutionalization is of such magnitude that the only authority is the dissidents, who have the community identified; The only road that is built, 14 kilometers long, and that connects Cauca with Buenaventura, to exit to the Pacific and have a highway for drug trafficking, is built with forced labor and taxes on the community, which is afraid. And the substitution of crops is going from strength to strength, but for the drug traffickers of the Mexican cartels, who have replaced the planting of coffee and bananas with coca.
However, after having ceded territorial control of large areas of western Colombia for more than a year and a half to Iván Mordisco’s dissidents in Cauca and Jamundí, on March 18 the Government lifted the ceasefire and began the strategy of militarization, which is implemented late, leaving a totally frightened population as cannon fodder.
The consequences of this incoherent strategy are already beginning to be seen: dozens of deaths of the civilian population and terror in the area due to the EMC attacks in Morales, Jamundí, Cajibío, Corinto, Jambaló, Caloto, Toribío and even Popayán. They are already at the gates of Cali, where drone attacks have already been announced.
In the end, the only one who will be harmed will be the long-suffering people of Cauca, who for decades have seen how the confrontations in the Middle East matter more than what happened to our compatriots. According to Cric data, between January and November 2023 alone there were 729 indigenous victims of the violence of the armed conflict and 175 recruitments of minors, 208 cases of confrontations, detentions, presence of fences and harassment.
It must be said very clearly, the dissidents have one objective: Cali. That is why they are strengthening themselves in all their neighboring municipalities: Jamundí, Santander de Quilichao, Padilla, Florida and Pradera. Meanwhile, the humanitarian crisis in Cauca is total. Why is the crisis in Palestine a very serious issue for the Government and in Cauca it is only a problem of noise?
LUIS FELIPE HENAO
