Clashes between FARC dissidents, gangs, and military in Colombia leave at least 20 dead

At least 20 people died in Colombia after members of the country’s military clashed with armed dissident groups and gangs in different parts of the country, authorities reported on Monday. 

In the province of Cauca, a military operation was carried out against a dissident camp belonging to a fraction of the now-disbanded Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC for its name in Spanish). 

The operation, led by the Colombian army in cooperation with the Aerospace Force and the Attorney General's Office, attempted to reach a camp of the Carlos Patiño structure in the rural area of Argelia, from where the dissident group was planning armed attacks and other criminal acts in the department. The battle lasted for over 72 hours. 

At least 12 rebels belonging to the dissident group were killed. Additionally, one soldier was killed during the clashes.

"The National Army regrets the death in the development of this operation of the professional soldier Edwin Julián Ñáñez Vélez, organic of the Rapid Deployment Battalion No. 12, killed while fulfilling his mission to defend the Caucanos in the south of the department,” the army said in a statement. 

In another part of the country, seven members of the drug cartel Clan Del Golfo—also known as the Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AGC)—were killed in Choco province, after military members raided one of their camps. Four other members of the drug cartel were arrested by police officers. 

"Men who were moving through the Currichá River were surprised in a combat with the Military Forces," said the commander of the Colombian Navy's Pacific Naval Force, Rear Admiral Carlos Alberto Serrano.

Serrano said that the success of the operation was a “significant blow" to the clan’s substructure, which "commits crimes” throughout the region. 

During the raid, the South American country’s military seized several long-range weapons, ammunition, and communications equipment.