First modification:
Colombia experienced this January 1 the first day of a six-month ceasefire agreed between the Government and the five main armed groups operating in the country, according to what President Gustavo Petro indicated. How much can you expect from this announcement?
“We have agreed a bilateral cessation with the ELN, the Segunda Marquetalia, the Central General Staff, the AGC (Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces of Colombia) and the Sierra Nevada Self-Defense Forces from January 1 to June 30, 2023, extendable according to the progress in the negotiations,” Colombian President Gustavo Petro said in a tweet. The biggest truce since the peace negotiations that ended with the peace agreement signed between the FARC and the Government in 2016 was one of Petro’s main objectives.
We have agreed to a bilateral cessation with the ELN, the Segunda Marquetalia, the Central General Staff, the AGC and the Self-Defense Forces of the Sierra Nevada from January 1 to June 30, 2023, extendable depending on the progress of the negotiations.
Total peace will be a reality.
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) January 1, 2023
“The end of violence will not be complete”
Hopeful, but with caution, this is how Jorge Restrepo, director of the Resource Center for Conflict Analysis in Colombia, received another step with which Colombian President Gustavo Petro intends to achieve the strategy dubbed “total peace.” A rapprochement with different armed groups that are currently still active and to which a bilateral ceasefire is proposed that would last until June 30.
“This is a very unconventional ceasefire for Colombia. Here we have had other ceasefires. The last one, the most recent, was the one that was achieved at the end of the negotiation with the now extinct FARC guerrilla. And the great difference between this and that is that it occurred at the end of the negotiation. In this case, it is a ceasefire that seeks to build peace, show the desire for peace of these criminal organizations by abandoning violence. And that is why I see it as very promising , but also as something that will be difficult for Colombian society to accept, because we were used to the fact that ceasefires ended the violence of a group and in this case I think that what we are going to see is a reduction in violence “, estimates Restrepo.
“There are other groups operating and also many of these groups are still in dispute with groups that did not agree to the ceasefire. So, the end of the violence will not be complete, let’s put it that way,” adds the expert.
“There’s a lot of hope”
More than a Christmas wish or a New Year’s resolution, starting 2023 with this news represents enormous hope for the many human rights organizations and representatives for peace who have dedicated their entire lives to trying to stop armed conflicts in Colombia. , as is the case of the priest Francisco de Roux, president of the Truth Commission.
“The news is very good because the news means that the political assassinations stop and we also wait for the assassinations that were coming by the groups entangled in the drug mafia. There is a lot of hope right now and steps have definitely been taken that we have never had before.” says the priest.
The bilateral ceasefire will affect five of the main armed groups operating in Colombia, including two factions of the extinct FARC guerrilla dissidents, who did not accept the peace process signed in 2016 with the State.
