The former paramilitary chief and former commander of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), Salvatore Mancuso, expressed on Monday to the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, his willingness to help build “total peace” in the country, through a letter.
“Tell me Mr. President what is the next step, I am ready to start a conversation with you, with the High Commissioner for Peace or with whomever you consider, to materialize this shared will to deliver a pacified and more humane Colombia to the new generations,” wrote Mancuso, in a letter released by President Gustavo Petro, through social networks.
The leader of the extinct AUC said that he wants to support the initiative and that his will is firm to work as a team, so that “total peace” can materialize.
“I want to tell you publicly that my conviction and commitment to work from the institutional framework to achieve a definitive peace for Colombia remain intact. If we had the capacity and ways to wage such a frenetic and heartbreaking war, we also have the capacity, ways and experience to help stop it. Mancuso said, from a prison in Atlanta, USA, where he is serving a sentence.
The words of the former paramilitary are made known after the Colombian president expressed his willingness to listen to him on Saturday.
“That Mancuso wants to be a peace manager? Let’s talk,” Petro said on Saturday, handing over a farm that belonged to Carlos Castaño -who was the top leader of the AUC-, to repair 50 families who were victims of Montería, formally starting his government’s agrarian reform. “Yes What I want is for you to help here so that there is no longer a war.”
“I am not afraid of him speaking. I don’t know who will be afraid of him speaking, but there must be truth,” added Petro.
One of the main proposals of the current president is to achieve dialogues with the armed groups of Colombia to reach agreements that allow ending the violence in the country, through a process of judicialization. So far, several illegal armed groups, including the two FARC dissidents and the Clan del Golfo, initiated a unilateral ceasefire as part of the Government’s exploration to achieve “complete peace”.
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