The FARC’s main dissidence, the Central General Staff, this Sunday publicly indicated its willingness to sit down at the table with the Colombian government. “We announce to the whole world that our delegates are ready to set up this table on May 16,” said spokeswoman Ángela Izquierdo of the Llanos del Yarí (Caquetá), where the dissidents have gathered in the presence of their leader. Iván Mordisco, whom Iván Duque’s government gave up for dead last year.
Iván Mordisco reappeared at the scene with a rifle getting into a truck, where he was taken to the place where he would meet with hundreds of people, not only from the dissident group, but also from farming communities who the dissidents called for these days of dialogue between them. This Saturday, the group announced its intention to set up the Peace Table in Norway, as a gesture of gratitude for that country’s support for peace in Colombia. In a statement to the press, they assured that the men who abandoned the process to disarm the FARC in 2016 were “committed” to peace, but not “peace on their knees.” “Peace can be made from the territories, but a peace with social justice and the Colombian people can have full confidence in that,” the guerrillas said.
FARC dissidents attend a meeting in San Vicente del Caguan JOAQUIN SARMIENTO (AFP)
Peace Commissioner Danilo Rueda was the one who managed to concretise these dialogues, although this weekend he did not finally take part in this type of “conclave” organized by the dissidents. After eight months of exploratory talks with Mordisco, Petro announced a month ago that the trial was underway. Last Monday, Rueda met with the leaders of this armed group in Yarí and received the names of five of its members who will integrate a mechanism of oversight and control that will begin on April 26.
The Colombian government will bring together some of the men who have been hiding in the jungle and dedicated to drug trafficking and extortion. The guerrillas who demobilized accused them of harassing them. Nonetheless, Petro believes that this is the way to demobilize the self-proclaimed Central General Staff that united the organization’s absolute power after Gentil Duarte’s death.
This negotiating table will function in parallel with that of the ELN. The total peace your government is proposing is inconceivable without deploying the self-proclaimed Central Joint Chiefs of Staff. For the time being, Petro has not considered that the other FARC dissidence, Iván Márquez’ Segunda Marquetalia, which includes combatants who have withdrawn from this process with the signed accords, should receive the same treatment.
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The Peace Commissioner has pointed to the soon-to-be-announced talks aimed at reducing disparities in areas affected by the armed conflict. The Central General Staff is the group with the most serious violations of the ceasefire, with more than 60 acts of violence against other groups and civilians, according to the latest ceasefire violation figures from the Institute for Development Studies and Peace (Indepaz). .
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