Adds remarks by Colombian president, Farc party leader.
A Venezuela-backed dissident wing of Colombia's former guerrilla movement Farc issued a new call to arms against the government.
In a video released this morning, dissident Farc leader Ivan Marquez alleged that the Colombian government is violating the terms of a 2016 peace agreement that was supposed to have ended the country's bloody decades-old conflict.
The new splinter group signed the message using the Farc's original formal name: Farc-the People's Army (Farc-EP). The Farc was founded in the early 1960s and grew to number nearly 20,000 fighters in the early 2000s with funding from drugs trafficking, kidnapping and extortion. It became a political party after the peace agreement.
The high-profile deal had raised oil industry hopes for a halt to chronic attacks on infrastructure. Such attacks have diminished but they continue to plague oil operations, especially crude pipelines, and insurgent groups warring over drugs routes in Catatumbo and other parts of Colombia remain active.
According to data from state-controlled Ecopetrol, there have been 48 attacks on pipelines and other oil installations so far this year, including 26 strikes on the 220,000 b/d Cano Limon-Covenas crude pipeline that runs along the eastern border with Venezuela. In the same period last year, there were 80 attacks.
In today's pronouncement, Marquez was flanked by Seuxis Paucias Hernandez Solarte, alias Jesus Santrich, who recently disappeared after his controversial release from detention for alleged drugs trafficking in violation of the terms of the peace deal.
Marquez said he was speaking from the Guainia department capital of Inirida, which lies about 30km from Colombia's border with Venezuela.
Venezuela has long offered refuge to Colombian rebels. The government of President Nicolas Maduro, whom the US, Colombia and more than 50 other countries no longer recognize as Venezuela's legitimate head of state, offers active support to the Farc dissidents and a fellow Colombian rebel group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), that was not part of the peace deal.
At the closure of the Sao Paulo forum of leftist groups in Caracas last month, Maduro lauded Marquez and Santrich as "peace leaders" and said they are welcome in Venezuela anytime they want to come.
After the peace agreement was signed, most Colombians rejected "the absurd idea of being Washington's sepoys in an unfair war against Venezuela", Marquez said in his 30-minute declaration issued this morning. He also denounced the oil industry practice of hydraulic fracturing, which Colombia's government is close to authorizing.
In a national address today, Colombian president Ivan Duque accused Venezuela of violating UN Security Council resolution 1373 that prohibits members states from harboring and aiding terrorist groups. The resolution was issued after the 11 September 2001 attacks in New York and Washington.
Duque urged the Farc and the transitional justice body (JEP) to expel the dissidents and said Colombia's armed forces "have all of the operational and police capabilities to pursue this criminal gang without rest". He said military actions would continue, adding that he ordered the creation of a special unit with reinforced intelligence and investigative capabilities and mobility to pursue the rebels in all of Colombia's territory. The government is offering a reward of 3bn pesos ($862mn) for the capture of each of the dissidents who appear in the video. The government will continue its policy of "peace with legality", Duque said.
Speaking to reporters today, Rodrigo Londono, leader of the political party Farc, said he felt "ashamed" of the splinter group and affirmed that the majority of former Farc members remain committed to the peace deal.
Miguel Ceballos, the government's high commissioner for peace, said this morning's address by Marquez confirms the alliance between the ELN, the Venezuelan government and this new splinter group, which he dubbed a small criminal gang.
"This shows the lack of will of these people who for more than a year have been challenging and tuning their backs on the peace process," Ceballos said. "This is not a surprise for Colombians." He said 90pc of the Farc members have complied with the agreement and they will be accompanied by the government in this process.
The previous government's peace negotiators Humberto de la Calle and Sergio Jaramillo called on Colombians to defend the agreement, asserting that it cannot be reversed. Most Farc members have complied with the peace terms and are returning to civilian life, he said.
But they also blamed the current government for "constant attacks" on the process and the "risks of judicial destabilization" that they have brought, contributing to "bad decisions" by some Farc commanders, a reference to conflicting judicial actions in the Santrich case.
Ceballos described the remarks as "unfair" and called on them to support the government in implementing the terms of the agreement.
In Venezuela, Maduro's opponents expressed little surprise at the emergence of the splinter group. Juan Guaido, the head of the opposition-controlled National Assembly who is recognized as interim president by Colombia, the US and the other countries who do not recognize Maduro, is building up a government in exile in anticipation of Maduro's departure. He and his associates have long warned of the presence of Colombian guerrilla groups inside Venezuelan territory.
In a tweet today, Guaido said he spoke with Duque to reiterate his support in the fight against the "narcoterrorism" that affects both country. "We reject the use of Venezuelan territory with Maduro's support to divulge their messages," he wrote in his tweet.
Duque confirmed that he spoke to Guaido to ask for his support in bringing the rebels to justice.
