Colombia's Petro suggests rebel group commander planning assassination

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia's President Gustavo Petro on Friday suggested that Ivan Mordisco, the commander of the Estado Mayor Central rebel group, was planning to have him assassinated by snipers.

Relations between the government and certain factions of the EMC have reached new lows after a ceasefire between the two sides broke down in July.

"I would ask alias 'Ivan Mordisco' if it's true that he has allied himself with the self-proclaimed 'New Drug Trafficking Board' with secret headquarters in Dubai, from where they commit crimes, to kill me with paid snipers," Petro said in a post on X.

Petro did not explain who or what the Dubai-based criminal group was, and intelligence sources said they did not have information of the planned attack.

The EMC is a dissident group of the now-demobilized Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) which reject a 2016 peace deal with the state.

(Reporting by Oliver Griffin and Luis Jaime Acosta; Editing by Josie Kao)