Colombia reactivates arrest warrants for 46 members of three armed groups, including FARC leader

Colombia has reactivated arrest warrants for 46 members of three armed groups after the government ended peace talks with them, restoring a legal measure that had been suspended during the negotiations.

Attorney General Luz Adriana Camargo ordered the warrants against 27 members of the FARC dissident group known as the State Major of Blocks and Fronts, or EMBF, including its leader, alias Calarcá. The measure also covers 13 members of the Bolivarian Army’s National Coordination and six members of the paramilitary Conquerors of the Sierra Nevada.

The attorney general’s office said the warrants returned after the government terminated the dialogue tables on Aug. 28 and revoked the designation of the groups’ representatives. That decision ended the suspension benefiting the arrest orders.

President Abelardo de la Espriella confirmed on Sunday that he had ended talks begun under his predecessor, left-wing leader Gustavo Petro. He said the groups had not demonstrated a real and verifiable willingness to make peace, reintegrate into civilian life or submit seriously to justice.

The EMBF split from the Central General Staff, the main dissident faction of the former FARC guerrilla movement, in 2024 after rejecting continued talks with Petro’s government. The Bolivarian Army coordination emerged from a split within another dissident group, the Second Marquetalia, and includes the Pacific Guerrilla Coordination and the Border Commands.

The decision marks another setback for Petro’s “total peace” policy. Talks with several armed groups, including the ELN and the Central General Staff, had already been suspended over alleged lack of willingness for peace. The policy also sought the submission to justice of criminal organizations such as the Gulf Clan, but produced limited results.

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I have taken this decision because there is no real and verifiable willingness for peace, much less for reintegration into civilian life or serious submission to justice that would justify maintaining them.