Colombian government and FARC dissidents postpone dialogue

The Colombian government and the FARC dissidents reported on Friday that the installation of the peace talks table has been indefinitely postponed because the conditions to start them have not yet been completed.

In a joint statement, the parties indicated that, in the first instance, the arrest warrant for the subversive leaders who will participate in the negotiation has not yet been lifted. They also consider it necessary to adjust the mechanisms for citizen participation at the table, in order to ensure that it is “broad and diverse.”

In addition, they raised the need to strengthen with “speed and responsibility” the full operation of the mechanisms for monitoring and verification of the bilateral ceasefire, with “active participation of representatives of civil society.”

The decision to postpone the official installation of the peace negotiating table was made during a meeting in the jungles of Yarí, in the department of Caquetá, in which the delegates of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia were with the peace commissioner Danilo Rueda, as well as representatives of the guarantor countries and the Catholic Church.

Another of the points that were agreed upon is that efforts will be made to make the dialogue table roaming in various regions of Colombia, and it was determined that at least one of the negotiation cycles take place in one of the European countries that are guarantors of the process.

Initially, after an act with the subversive base in Yarí, the FARC dissidents —led by Néstor Gregorio Vera, alias “Iván Mordisco”— had announced in mid-April that negotiations would begin on May 16. , but the Colombian government had not yet confirmed a start date.

The rapprochement with this illegal armed group, made up largely of those who did not submit to the peace process carried out during the government of former President Juan Manuel Santos in 2016, are part of the “total peace” that the government of President Gustavo is trying to achieve. Petro.

With this group of dissidents, which is estimated to have more than 2,000 men under arms and a thousand more in support networks, the government is proposing a political negotiation like the one that already began with the National Liberation Army, another large-scale guerrilla in the country.

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