SUMMARY

The General Staff of Blocks and Fronts (EMBF) was a far-left Marxist–Leninist guerrilla, operating mainly in the Colombian regions of Catatumbo, Bajo Cauca, Antioquia, and southern Bolívar. The group emerged as a splinter group from the FARC-EMC, a federation of dissidents from the demobilized guerrilla group FARC under the 2016 peace agreement.

The EMBF split from the FARC-EMC following ideological differences with Iván Mordisco, a top leader of FARC-EMC, regarding the peace process negotiations developing under President Gustavo Petro’s Total Peace policy. The group was founded by former FARC commander Alexander Díaz, alias “Calarcá Córdoba” in April 2024, following a statement by Calarcá Cordoba saying that Mordisco betrayed the original purpose of the rebel group, defending peasants and fighting against imperialism. This triggered the internal division which led to FARC-EMC leaving the peace process negotiation table. In turn, the EMBF declared its separation from the FARC-EMC and a unilateral independent commitment to the peace dialogues.

The EMBF was composed by three substructures: the Jorge Suárez Briceño Bloc, the Magdalena Medio Bloc, and the Commander Raúl Reyes Front.

EMBF sought to consolidate territorial control over strategic areas of the country, building its economy on drug trafficking, illegal mining and extorsion. In pursuit of this, it frequently clashed with other armed groups. Its main rivals were FARC-EMC, the EGC, and the ELN in the border with Venezuela, although in departments like Cauca and south of Bolívar the EMBF entered strategic alliances with ELN.

EMBF has been involved in state-based, non-state, one-sided and categories of UCDP organized violence.