The Central General Staff (EMC), main dissidence of the former FARCannounced this Sunday that the peace dialogue table with the Government of Colombia next May 16.
The announcement was made in Casa Roja, department of Caquetá, in a massive event attended by peasant, indigenous and Afro organizations and in which the EMC affirmed its desire for peace after a week meeting in which they approached positions and defined a line of action. joint action for the process that they are ready to start with the Colombian State.
I salute the dialogues that are being announced between the Government and guerrilla groups that did not become part of the Peace Agreement with the FARC-EP: pic.twitter.com/dHBzubQZRP
— Iván Cepeda Castro (@IvanCepedaCast) April 16, 2023
“We announce to the world that our delegates to the dialogue table with the Colombian State, headed by the National Government, are ready for May 16 of this year,” said a spokeswoman for the armed group, who transferred the attendees who The EMC hopes to have “the urgent accompaniment and direct participation (of the people) as the true sovereign power for construction,” according to a quote from efe.
He invited them to “be an essential part of this scenario of dialogue (…) being the people and the territories the most harmed in this war imposed by the elites against the vast majority.”
“The political reality shows that the Colombian people have awakened from this lethargy, from political illiteracy, and proof of this is the triumph of Gustavo Petro to the Presidency, seizing the Government from those who had maintained it by force of blood for more than 200 years. . Now it is up to us to build popular power to take it”, indicated the spokesperson.
For the moment, and according to efethe Government has not ruled on the matter, but the guerrillas have put on the table the possibility of the negotiation taking place in Oslo.
The intentions of the EMC
The EMC added that they will give “greater meaning to the struggle without ceasing to fight it, moving from mobilization to a broad popular movement”, to build a peace “with the bases and not imposed”.
Everything so that “the collective dream of seeing the new generations grow in a country without violence, where the most important thing is a dignified life above any particular interest where the fields are productive,” the guerrilla spokesperson said.
The woman, on the other hand, warned that if progress in peace is not achieved, “the present political moment would be archived as one more statistic.”
The guerrilla spokesperson also referred to the bilateral ceasefire and stressed the importance of establishing the monitoring and verification mechanism, which will be installed on April 26.
According to the latest data from the Institute for Development and Peace Studies (Indepaz), the EMC is the armed group that has violated the ceasefire the most since it was established earlier this year.
complete peace
“Let’s begin to configure a new social order and an economic model where the greatest beneficiaries are the vast majority, that is, the workers, the unemployed, the peasants and indigenous people who cultivate the land,” the guerrilla chanted.
Petro calls for consultations with the government peace delegation after the ELN attack
The Central General Staff is not the only dissidence of the former FARC, but it is the one closest to a peace process with the Government, since they never joined the 2016 Peace Agreement, unlike the other large group, the Second Marquetalia, who left years later alleging non-compliance.
While waiting for the Government to confirm the date, the EMC will start what will be the second peace process of the current Colombian Government, which is already in dialogue with the guerrillas of the National Liberation Army (ELN), the Spanish agency points out.
“This announcement is of greater importance,” said Iván Cepeda, a senator from the Polo Democrático and negotiator of the peace process, on Twitter. “It would already be the second Government Dialogue Table,” he said.
