Colombia partly suspends truce with armed EMC rebels

Bogot , March: Colombia on Sunday suspended a truce with the armed rebel faction the Central General Staff (EMC) in three different parts of the count...

Bogotá, March: Colombia on Sunday suspended a truce with the armed rebel faction the Central General Staff (EMC) in three different parts of the country, citing violence including an attack on an Indigenous group that left one woman dead.

The EMC -- dissident guerillas who broke off from the rebel FARC group when it signed a peace pact with the government in 2016 -- opened talks with President Gustavo Petro's administration last year.

Since his election in 2022, leftist Petro has sought to put an end to six decades of conflict between the country's security forces, guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries and drug gangs.

However, his "total peace" process has faced multiple setbacks with the guerrillas, who are linked to drug trafficking and are accused by rights groups of taking advantage of various ceasefires to expand their influence, seize more territory and recruit new members.

Sunday's announcement came after the EMC's "non-compliance with the ceasefire," and would see the military resume "offensive actions" against them in the departments of Narino, Cauca and Valle del Cauca, according to a decree from the defense ministry.