Several Colombian armed groups decreed a ceasefire as a gesture of goodwill to participate in possible peace talks or submission to justice promoted by the government of Gustavo Petro.
The Peace Commissioner, Danilo Rueda, told the press that several groups have joined and complied with the government’s request “not to kill, not to disappear and not to torture.”
Among them are several factions of the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) that did not accept the peace agreement signed in 2016. And the “Central General Staff” of the FARC-EP and the “Second Marquetalia”, led by aliases “Iván Márquez”, former number two of the FARC and one of the former negotiators of the peace agreement who later took up arms.
The Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces of Colombia or Clan del Golfo, dedicated to drug trafficking, and descendants of paramilitaries who recently increased their criminal activity in response to the extradition to the United States of their top boss, Dairo Antonio Úsuga David, also accepted it. Othniel.
The official confirmed the declaration of a ceasefire by the Self-Defense Conquerors of the Sierra, also known as Los Pachencas, heirs to paramilitary groups operating in northern Colombia. His statement was released in a statement in which they asked the government for “guarantees in the process”, a cessation of military operations against him and the cancellation of arrest warrants for his top leaders.
Petro, who in his youth was a guerrilla fighter and laid down his arms after a peace agreement, raised a week ago the possibility of achieving a multilateral ceasefire with various illegal groups.
However, the State has not decreed a multilateral ceasefire. Defense Minister Iván Velásquez said a week ago that the military and police forces continue to fight organized crime and that the search for peace with the armed groups does not mean inactivity, nor does the armed forces lower their guard.
