Gustavo Petro orders total offensive against FARC dissidents, meets Pope in Rome, mourns diplomat Gustavo Gallón

President Gustavo Petro announced a “total offensive” against the Central General Staff (EMC), the main dissident faction of the FARC led by Néstor Gregorio Vera, alias Iván Mordisco. He urged all military and police forces to obey the order and called on the youths and children recruited by the group to abandon the armed ranks. The defence ministry reported the killing of alias Ñeque, a top lieutenant of Mordisco, who faced U.S. narcoterrorism charges.

Petro flew to Rome and criticised the Italian government for not receiving him, writing on X: “Ningún funcionario del Gobierno italiano llegó a recibirme”. Despite the diplomatic snub, he proceeded with a scheduled audience on 2 July with Pope León XIV at the Vatican, where issues of peace, social justice, defence of life and international cooperation were to be discussed.

On 30 June the president confirmed the death of Gustavo Gallón Giraldo, Colombia’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva and a veteran defender of human rights. Petro described Gallón as a “hero of the defence of human rights of Colombia” and announced official state funerary honors at the San Carlos Palace. Gallón had founded the Comisión Colombiana de Juristas and had represented Colombia at the UN Human Rights Council.