Colombia launches military operation against armed groups

Colombia will launch a military offensive against illegal armed groups operating in the border areas and, according to Interior Minister Alfonso Prada, is seeking cooperation with neighboring countries.

The South American country has been rocked by an internal conflict for almost six decades that has claimed at least 450,000 lives.

President Gustavo Petro, who came to power in August and became the first left leader in the country, has recently resumed peace talks with the guerrilla group National Liberation Army (ELN), with talks in Venezuela while trying to secure a peace deal from 2016 to implement with the now demobilized FARC guerrillas.

As part of plans for a full peace, Petro also hopes to end fighting with two dissident FARC factions who oppose the peace deal, while drug traffickers and criminal gangs involved in cocaine production and trafficking could receive reduced prison sentences if they surrender to justice, divulge details of trade routes and hand over their assets.

“We have been in contact with the countries on the border because we have identified activities on the border that we will fight with our armed forces, but also with the international cooperation of Ecuador, Brazil, Peru, Venezuela and Panama,” Prada said to journalists.

The goal is to fight international criminal groups operating in various illegal industries, which requires cooperation with other countries, Prada said. Six companies of 400 men each will be dispatched to the south of the country, Prada added.

At least 18 people have been killed in recent fighting in the region between two factions of FARC dissidents over control of drug trafficking.

Security sources said that extensive areas of coca cultivation – the main ingredient in cocaine – and laboratories for the production of the drug had been discovered along Colombia’s borders.

They also reported that illegal armed groups involved in drug trafficking and linked to Mexican cartels operate in the region.

With information from latinapress