AGC goes to War with FARC dissident group EMC: but civilians are caught in the crossfire

Red Cross says it is the 7th internal conflict in the country

On April 3, the International Committee of the Red Cross released a communiqué detailing a new war in Colombia: One between paramilitary narco group the Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AGC) and a dissident group of extinct Farc guerillas known as Estado Mayor Central (EMC) a  commanded by "Iván Mordisco". 

This is the seventh active internal conflict identified by the international aid organization.

Just days before, EMC announced the creation of a new “front”, or semi-autonomous fighting unit, which they named 'Comandante Isaías Pardo' and which will be present in the departments of Valle del Cauca, Huila, Tolima, and Quindío, in the west and south of the country—all this, amid series of recent setbacks in Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s ambitious policy to bring “Total Peace” to the country via negotiations with criminal armed groups.

During the press conference, the ICRC presented its humanitarian response plan for 2024 amidst a series of ongoing armed conflicts. Lorenzo Caraffi, head of that delegation in the country,  called ongoing violence "worrisome".

"The EMC has been positioning itself in Caquetá. It has also been trying to position itself in southern Bolivar”, said Francisco Daza, a human rights analyst at the Foundation for Peace and Reconciliation (PARES)”, It is also disputing regions that have been very fortified [by AGC], such as the Bajo Cauca region of Antioquia. These two territories are key in terms of gaining control of illegal economies, such as illegal mining, it also shows how this conflict has been gradually growing," 

The expansion of these groups and the confrontations between them,  despite a supposed ceasefire of the EMC, have been documented by  Colombia’s Ombudsman's Office before the Red Cross announcement. In 2023, the number of municipalities with a presence of dissident FARC splinter groups increased from 230 to 299. And 234  by the dissidents of the EMC. 

But by far, AGC is the fastest-growing criminal group in recent years and is now the largest in the country. It went from being active in 253 municipalities in 2022 to having operations in 392 by 2023. 

In third place as far as territory, if not fighters, is the rebel group the National Liberation Army (ELN), which in 2022 was present in around 189 municipalities, expanding to 231 in 2023. 

Finally, the other remaining dissidence, the Second Marquetalia led by Iván Marquez, went from 230 towns in 2022, to 299 last year.

Because of this thorny landscape,  NGOs and public ministries have asked the president to center international humanitarian law during ongoing negotiations with illegal armed actors. 

"It is essential that the Colombian state and the armed groups place humanitarian concerns at the center of the peace talks. During the negotiations, special agreements can be adopted that contribute to alleviating the suffering of the population affected by armed conflict, reinforcing the obligations of the parties to the conflict concerning international humanitarian law," Caraffi, of the Red Cross, emphasized in his speech. 

Other crimes 

In addition to the military growth of criminal organizations such as the EMC and the AGC, violence is growing as well.“Disappearances” of civilians and injuries from anti-personnel mines are both on the rise. According to the Red Cross report,  explosive mines claimed 380 victims total in 2023, of which 205 were civilians and 23  minors. 

Indigenous people are disproportionately affected since mining in the jungle region where these communities live is a tactic of war used by illegal groups to gain ground. 

The ICRC counted 222 cases of “disappearances” of persons, 168 of civilians, and 49 minors- bringing the total number since Colombia’s 2016 peace deal to 1,476. It is worth remembering that before the peace talks with the now-extinct FARC-EP, the oldest Marxist guerrilla group in the continent at the time, also had record numbers of disappearances. According to the National Center of Historical Memory, there could be at least 80,000 cases. 

There was no encouraging news for departments such as Chocó, in the aforementioned report, where the situation there continues to be dramatic and leads the country cases of forced confinement of residents by armed groups, followed by Nariño. This border area with Ecuador is also one of the critical zones, where not only has the use of anti-personnel mines increased, but highest number of internally displaced people.

Calls The Red Cross stresses the importance of respecting international humanitarian law as a central point in these dialogues, mainly to adopt measures to protect the civilian population, which, as the data indicate, continues to be the most affected. It also stressed the need to implement and improve care routes for the communities. 

 On Saturday, the national government, which had paused the ceasefire with the EMC in three departments (Nariño, Cauca, Valle del Cauca) after an attack by this group in which they shot at the Indigenous Guard of Cauca and killed one of their leaders, announced that the bilateral ceasefire with EMC continues throughout the country, as well as the negotiations.

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