Guerrilla Group Denies Having Given Financial Support to President Petro’s Campaign

The guerrilla group Central General Staff (EMC) have denied providing economic support to the presidential campaign of the current head of state, Gustavo Petro, during 2022. Andrey Avendaño, peace delegate of this illegal armed group (a break-away of the former FARC) at the dialogue table with the government, has thus denied the rumors circulating in the last days within a Colombian political controversy.

Everything originated after the decision of the Colombian government to break the ceasefire it had with this organization in the departments of Cauca and Narino. In some controversial statements, President Petro called the man known as Ivan Mordisco, leader of the armed group, “a drug dealer disguised as a revolutionary”. The guerrilla leader responded to the president that “when we supported him in the campaign” he did not consider him a “drug trafficker”, words that opponents of the government have used to denounce an alleged guerrilla participation in the presidential campaign two years ago, in favor of the then candidate Gustavo Petro.

There was no support for Petro

Avendaño was forceful in his message in which he denied any economic support to the candidacy of the president. “I dare to affirm it with the transparency that has characterized me as a radical and a revolutionary, we in the territories did not support with our resources the campaign of Gustavo Petro; it is totally false what is currently being circulated on social networks”, affirmed the guerrilla member in an interview to the CM& news program on the night of Friday, March 22.

According to the member of the 33rd front of this guerrilla group, he has not even met personally with Gustavo Petro at any time, neither while he was a candidate nor now that he is president of Colombia. “I reiterate: we did not finance Petro’s campaign; when the communities asked us which was the best option to be president of Colombia, we answered that we thought that Petro was the best option, but from there to affirming that we financed the campaign there is a lot of difference. We hardly have enough to get by on,” Avendaño stated.

Regarding the qualification made by the EMC commander, Ivan Mordisco, about Petro’s “betrayal”, Avendaño points out that “when it is said that Petro betrayed us, we are referring to the moment in which he decided to break the bilateral ceasefire in several regions. The communities supported a government that promised peace, but when Petro changed the discourse to a more warlike one we believe it was a step backwards, a betrayal of what was promised to the people.”

Willingness to continue dialogue

The statement by the EMC delegate came two days after President Petro ordered the security forces to “catch alive” Ivan Mordisco, the leader of this dissident group, who on the social network X affirmed that he had supported the campaign of the current head of state.

“I want Ivan Mordisco to be taken alive, don’t kill him,” ordered the president during his speech in Sucre, where the government was based during the whole week, in its campaign of decentralization of the government’s action.

In the TV interview, the EMC peace delegate also stated that he is willing to pursue the peace talks with the government. “Those of us who have the opportunity to be able to make some decisions would be wrong to go back on what has been built and what has been advanced,” he said.

He added that “we cannot be saying that we are going to pick up the table and throw everything that has been built into the garbage.” On March 17, by means of a presidential decree, Gustavo Petro ordered the suspension of the ceasefire with the EMC, in view of the non-compliance with the ceasefire in Narino, Cauca and Valle del Cauca, due to attacks on the civilian population, organizations and social leaders.

On his X account, the head of state said that “the EMC of Cauca in its different fronts did not give from the beginning any sign of wanting a serious peace process. It believed, very mistakenly, that the negotiation was to strengthen itself militarily and that its strengthening was based on subjecting the population to its structures and financing itself with the illicit economy and with the large illicit capital.”

“We are not drug traffickers”

For his part, Andrey Avendaño denied that Ivan Losada, better known as Ivan Mordisco, was a “drug trafficker”, as the president called him. “Ivan Losada is not a drug dealer. He is a peasant who had to take up arms to defend the communities. It is time to dismantle the war discourse and resume the dialogues for a peaceful solution to the conflict,” said Avendaño in the television interview.

With the same vigour he defended the supposed revolutionary nature of his organization, denying the accusations of “drug trafficking” made against them by the head of state. “President Petro should evaluate whether we are traquetos [drug traffickers] or not. It is uncomfortable that he calls us traquetos. Time will prove us right. Our fight is for the needs of the communities and not business or drug trafficking. We are not drug traffickers,” he vehemently stated.

The guerrilla delegate defended maintaining the dialogue table as the option that his organization supports. “We cannot say that we are going to leave the table, we want to continue looking for peaceful and negotiated solutions; we cannot throw away what has been achieved,” he assured his listeners.