First modification:
2023 begins in Colombia with the unprecedented bilateral ceasefire, and simultaneously, between the State and five armed organizations: three of guerrilla origin and two of paramilitary origin.
With our correspondent in Bogotá, Paula Carrillo.
In his first tweet of the year, Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced that he had agreed to a six-month ceasefire with the country’s main armed groups.
“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,” the president said on January 1.
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
In this way, Petro takes an ambitious step towards the so-called “total peace”, despite the fact that it only maintains official negotiations with the National Liberation Army (ELN).
In the past, some truces have failed due to the impossibility of verifying them and the strengthening of some armed groups after the ceasefire.
Even the former president Juan Manuel Santos, who achieved peace with the FARC guerrilla, carried out the then dialogues in the midst of bullets, with some exceptions.
Will Petro calm the opposition of the most skeptical sectors? Former President Álvaro Uribe’s party, the now opposition Democratic Center, has described the “total peace” proposal as “apology for crime and impunity.”
10,000 armed men
How will you prevent the violence of these armed organizations, in conflict with each other? It is the first challenge of this new year.
According to the Institute for Development and Peace Studies (Indepaz), these groups number more than 10,000 armed men who fight for control of drug trafficking and other illegal businesses.
The UN Secretary General, António Guterres, “welcomes (…) an event that renews the hopes for lasting peace of the Colombian people in the new year,” a statement said.
The UN itself, the Ombudsman’s Office and the Catholic Church will verify compliance with the truce.
