DNA
BOGOTA: Colombian forces killed six members of armed groups on Sunday, President Abelardo de la Espriella announced, the opening salvo in a crackdown on crime just days after his inauguration.
The far-right leader took office on Friday vowing to crush criminal groups profiting from drug trafficking amid the South American country’s worst wave of violence of the past decade.
Sunday’s military operations are among the first by the new government against the illegal groups, and they mark “a clear and powerful message to all bandits,” De la Espriella said in a statement. “There is nowhere for them to hide.”
The tough-talking former lawyer campaigned on confronting “narcoterrorism without truce” and ending peace talks with armed groups following his inauguration in the southwestern city of Cali.
He has pledged to intensify airstrikes against guerrillas and drug traffickers operating in Colombia and to build mega-prisons similar to the one in El Salvador.
Colombian troops on Sunday killed four rebels of a splinter faction of the former FARC guerrilla group, including a mid-level commander, in an Amazonian town in central Meta department, the president said.
That dissident faction is led by Ivan Mordisco, Colombia’s most wanted guerrilla commander.
The army also killed two members of the Gulf Clan, Colombia’s main drug cartel, in Antioquia department in the northwest.
On Saturday, two bombing attacks in different parts of the country marred De la Espriella’s first day in office, killing at least one police officer and wounding several people.
Colombia’s army said that in one attack, FARC guerilla dissidents used explosives to destroy a highway tollbooth near Cali, with two security guards suffering minor injuries.
A decade after landmark peace accords, pockets of the country are still ruled by dissident armed groups that dominate global cocaine production.
The confrontational style of De la Espriella, a first-time political leader who openly admires US President Donald Trump and El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele, now faces tough opposition from the guerrilla groups and drug traffickers operating in Colombia.
