The Colombian government and the main faction of the dissident Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) announced this Saturday, September 2, that they had agreed to resume a bilateral ceasefire. The latter does not yet have a specific date, but comes after its suspension in May and could precede the peace talks.
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The truce, whose start date has not been specified, ” will aim to reduce confrontation and violence “, specified in a press release the emissaries of President Gustavo Petro and ” Ivan Mordisco “, Chief of the central staff of Farc (EMC).
The EMC is made up of rebels who refused to sign the historic 2016 peace agreement between the government and the Marxist guerrillas.
From his rise to powerPresident Gustavo Petro, the country’s first left-wing head of state and himself a former guerrilla, is striving to achieve complete peace with all the armed groups in Colombia.
The text specifies that this ceasefire will have a character temporary ” And ” national “. It also announces the development of actions ” aimed at promoting the participation of civil society in the peace process ” And ” establishing a climate of trust “.
The delegates had been meeting since Thursday, August 31 in the mountains of the Cauca department (southwest), as part of the first official meeting between the government and the dissident Farc. It profits from drug trafficking and irregular mining.
The dissidents have federated in recent months several other “Fronts” operating in various regions of Colombia – mainly in the Amazon, on the Pacific coast and on the Venezuelan border. Its forces are estimated at nearly 3,500 men who consider themselves the true heirs of historical guerrilla warfare.
Truce suspended in May after the murder of natives opposed to being recruited
Gustavo Petro had announced a bilateral truce with the country’s five main armed groups at midnight on December 31, 2022, but suspended the agreement with the EMC in May, when the rebels killed four young indigenous people who opposed their recruitment. .
The parties announce, in the press release, the imminent start of negotiations without specifying the date or place. This process will be observed by several countries, whose names have not been specified, as well as by the UN, the Organization of American States (OAS) or the World Council of Churches.
A photograph released by the office of the High Commissioner for Peace, Danilo Rueda, shows the latter smiling with the official chief negotiator Camilo Gonzalez Posso, and the chief negotiator of the EMC. This one is known as Andrey Avendaño. Commander Andrey had set as a condition for future negotiations a prior ceasefire agreement.
President Petro seeks to end six decades of armed conflict by conducting peace negotiations with all illegal armed groups, including the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrillas.
(With AFP)