Guerrilla leader responds to Colombian president: ‘When we supported you during the campaign we were not drug dealers’

By Laura Gamba

BOGOTA, Colombia (AA) - Ivan Mordisco, the leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) rebels, responded Thursday to Colombian President Gustavo Petro who criticized him for killing people and said he is a “drug dealer dressed as a revolutionary.”

“When we supported you during the campaign we were not drug dealers,” Mordisco wrote on X. “He (Petro) betrayed us, he betrayed the people who supported him for his progressive and peace discourse, today he promotes war and capitalism."

That response came one day after Petro said Mordisco, whose real name is Nestor Gregorio Vera Fernandez, was "the former driver" of a FARC commander "that kept the drug dealing business.”

“The FARC made peace and the driver kept the business. Now he is killing peasant leaders, assassinating the people and he talks about revolution.”

The government suspended a bilateral cease-fire with the rebel group Tuesday in three areas of the country following the latest attack against indigenous people in the Colombian area of Cauca that left an indigenous leader dead and two others injured last weekend.

There have been multiple clashes between the group and the military since Petro decided to end the truce.

Petro's government began peace negotiations last year with the FARC rebels who did not adhere to an agreement signed in 2016 with the larger FARC group.

As part of the talks, the two sides initiated a bilateral and temporary cease-fire on Oct, 17, which was extended in January for six months to July 15.