The outgoing president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, has ordered the deployment of a "total offensive" in the southwest of the country against the Estado Mayor Central (EMC), the largest dissident group of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), led by Néstor Gregorio Vera, known as 'Iván Mordisco'.
"I have given an order: total offensive against the bloodiest armed group of drug trafficking," Petro stated in a message broadcast on social media, in which he emphasized that he expects "obedience" from "all" the Military Forces and the Police.
Emphasizing that "it is time" for the "final offensive" in the department of Cauca, the outgoing president from the Casa de Nariño addressed the "young men and children who make up the mafia force" to urge them to abandon "the ranks of drug trafficking" and rejoin civilian life. "The law protects you, please, before the missiles that will fall on our people," he pleaded.
Petro also highlighted that "the two main leaders of the structures" of alias 'Iván Mordisco' in Cauca have been "defeated." This statement is related to the "neutralization" announced this Monday by the Colombian Minister of Defense, Pedro Arnulfo Sánchez, of alias 'Ñeque', one of the "main replacements and responsible for the illegal finances of the structure of alias 'Mordisco'."
As Sánchez detailed in a statement on his social media, alias 'Ñeque' was "the right-hand man of alias 'Marlon'," allegedly "neutralized" about ten days ago. The minister himself explained that he "managed the resources that bring death and pain through drug trafficking, which financed the purchase of weapons and explosives, the forced recruitment of minors, and the execution of terrorist attacks in the departments of Cauca, Valle del Cauca, and Nariño."
Alias 'Ñeque' faced accusations in the United States for narcoterrorism, support for a terrorist organization, international trafficking of cocaine and firearms. Therefore, the head of Defense remarked, his fall represents a "strategic blow to the financial and logistical arm of the dissidents of alias 'Mordisco', the financing of terrorist actions, and criminal expansion."
Regarding alias 'Marlon', Sánchez has pointed out that, although "operational and Intelligence reports indicated that this criminal had been neutralized", since "the body was not recovered", that neutralization cannot be considered "fully" verified, since, he has reiterated, "this is only accredited through the technical inspection of the corpse and the corresponding forensic doctor identification".