The FARC dissidents, according to a joint statement, called for a bilateral ceasefire to be verified by neutral entities, as well as the dialogue process that can begin once its structure has been consulted on the matter. For his part, Commissioner Rueda reiterated Petro’s policy of “total peace” and the focus that the Casa de Nariño wants to give to this strategy.
The High Commissioner for Peace sent by the Government of Colombia, Danilo Rueda, together with four members of the FARC dissidence, commanded by alias “Iván Mordisco”, held a meeting in the department of Caquetá in the company of two international observers on 17 September in order to carry out a dialogue that will lead to a ceasefire and with it, initiate talks to achieve total peace.
Photos of the meeting were released by the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, in his social networks this Sunday, September 18, where he asserted that “a dialogue begins”, in relation to the “exploratory” conversation between both sides.
Start a dialogue. pic.twitter.com/dwDeGulOo2
– Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) September 18, 2022
Both parties signed a summary document of said exploratory meeting in which they expressed their willingness and the need for the talks to lead to a bilateral ceasefire, which must be verified by impartial external agents.
At the meeting, Rueda reiterated Petro’s policy of “total peace” and the focus that the Casa de Nariño wants to give to this strategy. He also detailed that a central issue “are the substantial binding citizen demands and the rights that must be guaranteed to transition to the Social and Environmental State of Law.”
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For their part, the FARC dissidents expressed four points that are key to them, such as, for example, that total peace means the “eradication of the causes” that generated the conflict; a declaration as soon as possible of a bilateral ceasefire that is agreed upon by the parties; that the structures of that guerrilla be consulted to start the dialogue and that there be neutral third parties as guarantors of the process.
In an important meeting of exploration and rapprochement to start the dialogues,
the @CommissionedPaz agrees with the Central General Staff of Farc dissidents to sign a protocol to guarantee a meeting of the EMC commanders. pic.twitter.com/elBDoXGdkr— INDEPAZ (@Indepaz) September 18, 2022
Finally, the parties to the meeting “agreed to sign a confidential protocol to guarantee a meeting of the FARC EP EMC commanders.”
For his part, former senator Carlos Fernando Galán, one of the leaders of the New Liberalism party, criticized the meeting with FARC dissidents and said that the government cannot “give political status” to dissidents.
“The Colombian state must not negotiate with the FARC dissidents, it cannot give them a political status. They must submit to justice. Period », he wrote in Twitter Galán, also a former candidate for mayor of Bogotá, referring to the fact that precisely these people did not take advantage of the peace agreement signed by the guerrillas and the government in 2016.
The Colombian State must not negotiate with the FARC dissidents, it cannot give them a political status. They must submit to justice. Spot.
– Carlos F. Galan (@CarlosFGalan) September 18, 2022
Before Petro assumed the presidency in Colombia on August 7, the FARC dissidents issued a statement in which they expressed their willingness to dialogue with the Government of Colombia once he assumed power, for which they were already proposing a bilateral ceasefire agreement and generate a “favorable” climate for eventual negotiations.
The statement, which was undated but released on Wednesday, August 3was presumably read by alias Iván Mordisco -who according to the authorities was killed during an operation-, who considers, on behalf of the FARC dissidence, to be “genuine representatives” of Colombians.
With information from Change / WRadius / Telesur / Radio Union /
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