Spanish
Bogotá.- Four people were murdered in a new massacre perpetrated by illegal groups in a rural area of the municipality of Padilla, located in the department of Cauca (southwest) of Colombia, the Army reported this Monday in a video broadcast through social media.
"According to preliminary information, this event would be related to confrontations between criminal structures associated with territorial control for micro-trafficking activities," the Army stated on X.
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"This fact, attributed to structures of Guachené linked to the Dagoberto Ramos Mobile Column, confirms the dispute over the strategic corridor of northern Cauca", assured the director of the Institute for Development and Peace Studies (Indepaz), Leonardo González, who condemned what is the sixth massacre of 2026 in Colombia and the second in this department. The Dagoberto Ramos group is part of the Central General Staff (EMC), the main dissident group of the extinct FARC. The Army, in coordination with the Colombian Police, remains in the area and maintains operations with the aim of "counteracting criminal actions, strengthening the institutional presence and preserving the security of the population". Cauca is one of the departments most affected by the Colombian armed conflict and, even after the signing of peace between the Government and the former FARC guerrilla in 2016, it continues to be a scene of violence. In that department, located between the mountains of the Andes mountain range and the Pacific Ocean, there is a strong presence of several factions of the dissidents of the former FARC, the guerrilla group of the National Liberation Army (ELN), and drug trafficking gangs that control coca crops and routes for the international drug trade.
