The Colombian High Commissioner for Peace, Danilo Rueda, met in the south of the country with Delegates of the most powerful front of the Farc dissidents to explore an eventual negotiation, according to a statement released this Saturday.
(Read: Government admits drug shortages but denies shortages).
“In the department of Caquetá (…) we have held an exploration and rapprochement meeting to assess the possibility of initiating dialogues within the framework of total peace“, reads the text, which is undated. Rueda and four delegates from the insurgency, identified as Calarcá Córdoba, Alonso 45, Ermes Tovar and Erika Castro, sign the message, released by the Colombian press along with a photograph of the commissioner and four uniformed men sitting in a stable.
UN representative Raúl Rosende and Norwegian diplomat Dag Nagoda are also listed as “international observers” and appear in the image. According to the website Cambio, the meeting took place on the same Saturday, September 17, and the rebels belong to a faction of the FARC -Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia- that it was marginalized from the 2016 peace pact known as the First Front or Southeastern Bloc.
“The two parties express the willingness and need for these dialogues to be set by a bilateral ceasefire, the execution of which must be verified.“, indicated the government and rebels. They also agreed on “a confidential protocol to guarantee a meeting” of the guerrilla commanders.
In August, the left came to power for the first time in Colombia, led by Gustavo Petro, who raised a policy of “total peace” to end the internal conflict of almost six decades. Rueda had announced last week that the former number two of the former FARC, Iván Márquez, leader of another dissident faction known as “Second Marquetalia”, is interested in participating in the new talks.
(Keep reading: How viable is it to implement Petro’s pension proposal?).
The proposal contemplates a “multilateral” ceasefire with the different groups that separated from the pact that returned some 7,000 FARC combatants to civilian life. Dissident factions are now at odds with each other for control of drug trafficking routes, according to independent studies.
Other organizations such as the ELN guerrilla and the Clan del Golfo, a powerful arm of the drug trafficker, have heeded the call of the Petro, without yet reaching an agreement to stop the violent escalation that Colombia is experiencing.
AFP
