Colombian FARC dissidents warn they will fight any US military intervention after Trump threatened ground operations against drug traffickers.
BOGOTA: FARC dissidents warned the United States on Saturday they would fight any violations of Colombian sovereignty after President Donald Trump threatened ground operations against drug traffickers.
The so-called Central General Staff of FARC said in a text they are used to fighting whoever they must.
“We have always been staunch opponents of the American empire,” the group stated.
“We will not allow military interventions and violations of Colombian sovereignty.”
The US has conducted at least 10 air strikes on boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, killing at least 43 people it claims were involved in drug trafficking.
Colombia remains the world’s largest cocaine producer with EMC rebels controlling production in regions including Catatumbo on the Venezuelan border.
The group is led by Ivan Mordisco, considered Colombia’s most wanted criminal and compared by President Gustavo Petro to drug lord Pablo Escobar.
Trump has called Petro a “drug-trafficking leader” and imposed financial sanctions on him.
The US president urged the leftist leader to “close” Colombia’s coca fields “or the United States will close them up for him, and it won’t be done nicely.”
Petro said Thursday that any ground aggression would be “an invasion and a breach of national sovereignty.”
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, facing similar US threats, accused the White House of “fabricating a new eternal war” with the boat strikes. – AFP
