President Gustavo Petro stated that the rise in violence in Colombia originated from the failure to implement the National Integral Program for the Substitution of Illicit Crops (PNIS) during Iván Duque's government. In a speech, he lamented the deaths of minors in military bombings and criticized the recruitment of children by FARC dissidents. Petro announced he will denounce the dissident leader to the International Criminal Court.
In his presidential address, Gustavo Petro outlined Colombia's security landscape, highlighting bombings by the Armed Forces in Guaviare, Arauca, and Amazonas against criminal armed groups. "Unfortunately, minor combatants died," the president stated.
Petro attributed the surge in violence to the neglect in implementing the PNIS under Iván Duque's administration. "When the PNIS was abandoned in August 2019, peace was torn to shreds and the construction of the violence we are currently experiencing began," he said. He apologized to the mothers of youths killed in combat, emphasizing that "war is always an anomalous and negative fact for any society; the pursuit of peace must always be the maximum objective of societies".
The president clarified that the deceased minors were not bystanders but had been recruited, trained, and armed. Regarding the reappearance of alias "Iván Mordisco," leader of the FARC dissidents, who rejected military operations and sent condolences to the families of the dead minors, Petro labeled him a war criminal. "This places him as a war criminal who must be denounced before the International Criminal Court; I will do it because I have the authority," he declared, referring to the group's primary recruitment of minors.
Petro rejected suspending the bombings, arguing it would send a "contradictory message" that would increase child recruitment. Mordisco, for his part, described the fallen youths as "dignified fighters for the liberation of our people" and announced a stance of "defense of the territories" ahead of the 2026 elections to minimize traumas from a "guerrerista advance".