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In Colombia anything can happen, it is often said in news circles. The surprising thing is that there is serious news that, however, does not have as much resonance. That of the attack on the father of Vice President Francia Márquez is one of them.
It happened precisely on Father’s Day and caused no victims or injuries, but it could have been fatal for Sigifredo Márquez, father of the also Minister of Equality, for a 6-year-old boy who is the nephew of the vice president and for the two bodyguards, who reacted to the shooting of two men who were traveling on a motorcycle. Until now, little is known: what happened on the Suárez-Cali highway between the tormented departments of Cauca and Valle del Cauca, that four men on two motorcycles forced the car to stop and opened fire. Which, according to the commander of the Armed Forces, is generated by Helder Giraldo, behind the attack is an alias Ostin that integrates “terrorist support networks, with two more individuals, who, apparently, were the ones who directly participated in the attack.”
The news generated condemnation from the UN, but so far few statements have been made by political parties despite the seriousness of the event, as highlighted by columnist and lawyer Ramiro Bejarano. “If the attack had been on another person the scream would have been louder. It seems that they did not understand the seriousness of what is happening,” he said in X, while missing any statement from the church or the unions.
And among citizens, through comments on the networks, you can see from those who celebrate it to those who doubt that it happened. Some even remember the episode in which Márquez was criticized for using a helicopter to get to her house in Cali. The attack on her father and her nephew, in addition to the long-standing threats she has had, however, show the high risk she faces. “What we have experienced has not been due to the functions I perform, but more towards the person, towards what I represent, towards my identity. That, of course, reveals racism in our country and it is painful,” she said about the helicopter controversy in an interview a year ago for this medium.
The senator of the Democratic Center, María Fernanda Cabal, regretted the fact and held the Government responsible. “Our hearts ache every day from the increasing massacres and continuous guerrilla attacks,” she wrote. Her co-partisan Miguel Polo Polo, representative to the Chamber, went further. He not only questioned the attack, but also expressed himself with sarcasm. “Welcome to the world power of life that the government of his daughter promised us, tasty, right? May Mrs. Francia feel what the Colombian victims of her Government’s permissiveness with criminal groups feel,” she wrote along with other statements.
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Other parties such as Cambio Radical regretted the attack and pointed out that this is due to the “failure of total peace” of the Government of Gustavo Petro. “Sadly, it is one more demonstration of the insecurity situation in Cauca and Valle del Cauca. This is the drama that the inhabitants of these departments experience every day.”
The attack on a relative of a high government official reveals the level of organization or criminal activity of the armed groups that have citizens in Cauca in check. Even, as reported in this note, the dissidents of the extinct FARC are using drones with bombs in the southwest of the country where they are fighting a battle with the Army for the Micay Canyon, which is the exit area for drugs to the Pacific. In recent months Cauca has been hit with explosive attacks and murder of indigenous social leaders.
That’s what the vice president—from Cauca—spoke about last Monday: “I have asked the president for all the attention of the national government to that territory,” she said before a meeting with the military leadership. “I will continue to forcefully demand results in my region, in my municipality for the safety not only of my family but of the entire population of Cauca, Valle del Cauca and the Pacific.” Márquez called on the Prosecutor’s Office to investigate the attack, as well as the recruitment of children and young people by armed groups.
The event also coincided with a motion of censure against the Minister of Defense, Iván Velásquez. The head of the portfolio admitted what many analysts warned: the ceasefire agreed between the Government and the self-proclaimed Central General Staff (EMC) strengthened the structures affiliated with that umbrella in the region. The ceasefire was suspended in March and, since then, these fronts have separated themselves from the EMC delegates who negotiate with the Government and have increased their violent actions.
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