Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s program of “total peace” has stalled on Monday after the killing of four indigenous minors by the Central Staff (EMC)the most important dissidence of the former FARC guerrillas, with whom the government wants to start a peace dialogue.
The multiple crimes denounced last weekend by the National Organization of Indigenous Peoples of the Colombian Amazon (OPIAC) took place in the Putumayo department on the border with Ecuador prompted the government to partially suspend the bilateral ceasefire with the EMCto whom the massacre is attributed.
“The killing of tribal children is an unlawful crime against humanity. The forced recruitment of minors also applies.”Petro wrote on Twitter on Monday, hours after he “partially suspended” the bilateral ceasefire with the EMC, which includes the Carolina Ramírez Front, and was blamed for the forced recruitment and murder of the four minors, EFE reported.
According to OPIAC, “the four young people who tried to escape the recruitment situation on May 17” were killed “with a firearm” and their bodies were found over the weekend in the village of El Estrecho in the Putumayo region.
Before this carnage is regarded by the government as “an abominable fact that calls into question the will to build a country in peace”It was decided to suspend the bilateral ceasefire with the EMC “in the departments of Meta, Caquetá, Guaviare and Putumayo”, the main operational areas of this group, and to resume “all offensive operations” within 72 hours.
“There is no justification whatsoever for this type of crime,” which constitutes a “serious violation of international humanitarian law,” the government said in a statement.
The six-month bilateral ceasefire with five illegal armed groups, with which a peace deal is being sought, was announced by Petro just before midnight on December 31, 2022, but this initiative was taken to reduce the intensity of the armed conflict and facilitate conflict dialogues , did not come about.
from these groups The guerrillas of the National Liberation Army (ELN) publicly ignored the bilateral ceasefire in January although peace talks have been ongoing with the governments of Venezuela, Mexico and Cuba since November last year, a process that has seen crisis alerts sounded on at least two occasions.
On March 20, Petro himself suspended the truce with the Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AGC), as the Clan del Golfo criminal gang is known, for inciting violence in a miners’ strike in the north-west of the country, now in part in the central one Former FARC General Staff suspended.
Therefore, the armistice, initially valid until June 30, will only be continued with the Second Marquetaliathe FARC’s other major dissidence, and with the Sierra Nevada paramilitaries operating in the north of the country.
“A ceasefire means a cessation of hostilities against the civilian population. We hope that the EMC’s various fronts in the areas where the ceasefire will not be lifted will heed this imperative,” the President added on Twitter.
Despite Monday’s announcement, the government has not lost hope of sitting down for negotiations with the central general staff, led by Néstor Gregorio Vera Fernández, aka “Iván Mordisco”, a guerrilla fighter who never accepted the peace deal signed in November 2016 becomes.
The leaders of the other dissidence, the Segunda Marquetalia, led by Iván Márquez, actually signed peace Three years later, they withdrew, claiming that the government had violated agreements with the FARC.
“The Colombian government will announce in the next few hours the names of the members of its delegation to the peace talks table with the EMC-FARC in order to forcibly start the dialogue phase,” added the official statement on the possibility of opening a peace process by this group.
The start of these dialogues was scheduled for May 16, according to the EMC, but earlier this month it was decided to postpone the establishment of the table to ensure the participation of social organisations, unions and other sectors, although without setting a date.
On the same May 16th The EMC questioned the continuity of the bilateral ceasefire, claiming that the government had failed in military operations during the year in which ten guerrilla fighters died and 20 others were injured.
After the suspension of the bilateral ceasefire, the Central General Staff responded that the government’s decision “will trigger the war.”
“The unilateral breach will trigger war and the number of dead, wounded and prisoners will multiply, contrary to a policy of total peace,” the EMC said in a statement.