BOGOTA, Colombia
Ten soldiers we killed and 20 others injured early Wednesday in an attack in the southwest department of Cauca.
It was the single most deadly attack on the Colombian armed forces since the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, declared a unilateral cease-fire Dec. 20.
The attack was carried out against the military garrison by members of FARC’s mobile “Miller Perdomo” unit active in the area, according to reports being released from the affected area, on the outskirts of Timba, about 30 miles south of the industrial and commercial hub of Cali.
“I lament the death of the soldiers in Cauca. This is precisely the war which we wish to bring to an end,” said Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos via his Twitter account. “With the military high command we will establish the circumstances around this event and I will travel today to the area,” he continued.
Gen. Mario Valencia, commander of the Colombian army’s third division, speaking at a press conference in Cali said the soldiers were attacked with “explosives, grenades and firearms,” and that it was not an ambush.
Speaking from Havana where the FARC are involved in ongoing peace dialogues with a government negotiating team since November 2012, rebel spokesperson Félix Antonio Muñoz Lascarro, alias “Pastor Alape,” confirmed the attack and said that it resulted from the government’s “incoherency” in that, “it is ordering military operations against the guerrillas who have called a truce.”
“A bilateral cease-fire is urgent for the nation and this is what the country is waiting for,” he added.
Since FARC declared the cease-fire, President Juan Manuel Santos on April 8 suspended bombing raids for another month against guerrilla installations and columns.
Paradoxically, Wednesday’s attack comes only one day after Alape suggested during an interview on Tuesday with Colombia’s Blu Radio that the guerrilla group was contemplating laying down their weapons.
The FARC continually insist it will only use force when its combatants come under attack and that its shows of force are defensive in nature. But the most recent report produced by the Conflict Analysis Resource Center in Bogota shows the FARC has launched five separate offensives in the past month in violation of the terms of their own unilateral and indefinite cease-fire.
The region of Cauca where the bloody attack took place is one of the most strongly disputed areas in Colombia. The challenging terrain covers strategic corridors that the FARC has used to transport illicit drugs to the Pacific coast for exportation and for the importation of weapons.
