At least 11 dissident ex-FARC rebels who rejected the 2016 peace accord have been killed during military operations on the border with Peru, the Colombian army said on Tuesday.
According to General Alberto Rodriguez, they belonged to the Segunda Marquetalia, one of the two main factions of the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Marxists) commanded by the former number two of the FARC, Ivan Marquez, ex-negotiator of the agreements of peace which had put an end to fifty years of conflict.
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Four other guerrillas
"wounded in the fighting"
in Puerto Leguizamo, in the department of Putumayo (south), were arrested, he added.
The general explained that the rebels killed were under the orders of a leader, whose alias is "Bruno", in charge of
"collecting the base paste of coca"
, one of the components of cocaine,
"for the market”
in this part of the country.
Putumayo, which borders Peru and Ecuador, is among the departments where the largest areas of coca are grown, with Colombia being the world's largest producer of cocaine and the United States the largest market.
FARC dissidents are fighting over the revenues from this juicy traffic with the National Liberation Army (ELN, Guevarist), the last guerrilla group still active in Colombia.
At the end of February, at least 23 ex-FARC dissidents were shot dead during Colombian army operations on the border with Venezuela.
Without a unified command, the various dissident groups of the ex-FARC have around 5,200 fighters spread over several regions of the country, according to the NGO Indepaz.
They finance themselves mainly through the income from drug trafficking and illegal mining.