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Colombia's attorney general on Monday suspended arrest warrants against 19 members of a group of former rebels who reject a 2016 peace deal, a step toward new negotiations promised by President Gustavo Petro.
The Estado Mayor Central armed group was founded by former members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels who did not join that group's demobilization and conversion to a legal political party.
Petro has vowed to end Colombia's 60-year conflict - which has killed at least 450,000 people - by inking peace or surrender deals with remaining rebels and crime gangs and by fully implementing the FARC accord.
"The attorney general of the nation, after weighing the arguments presented by President Petro, and in accordance with his legal and constitutional duties, has decided to suspend existing and future arrest warrants against 19 people," the attorney general's office said in a statement. None of the 19 have extradition warrants, the prosecutor's office said.
The suspension will allow discussions to take place between the dissidents and government officials, Petro said on Twitter - a first step to beginning formal talks. The attorney general said in January he would not drop extradition warrants for drug-trafficking bosses, with whom Petro wants to agree to surrender deals.
"A second peace process is beginning," Petro tweeted, adding discussions would be established between the government and the group. The government is already in peace talks with the National Liberation Army (ELN) rebels and the two sides have said they are progressing toward a bilateral ceasefire deal.
The country's top peace official told Reuters last month the government expects talks with the Estado Mayor and Segunda Marquetalia, another FARC dissident group, within weeks.
Clan del Golfo Breaks Ceasefire
The government is holding a ceasefire with the dissident groups and some criminal gangs, though Petro said on Thursday that the Clan del Golfo criminal group had broken its deal.Colombia's President Gustavo Petro accused the Clan del Golfo, the country's biggest criminal group, of breaking a ceasefire by attacking an aqueduct during demonstrations by miners protesting against military operations targeting illegal gold mining.
Roadblocks connected to the protests affected up to 300,000 people across 12 municipalities in Colombia's Antioquia and Cordoba provinces, resulting in shortages of fuel, food, and medicine, the government said. Police lifted the majority of the roadblocks last week.
"By breaking the pipes, they have left Taraza without drinking water. The Clan del Golfo versus humble people," Petro said in a Twitter message on Sunday, referring to an attack in the municipality. The group "has broken the ceasefire," he said.
The government reached a ceasefire with the Clan del Golfo - also known as the Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces (AGC) - as part of efforts to end the group's part in Colombia's internal armed conflict, which has killed at least 450,000 people over six decades.
The group did not immediately respond to Petro's statement.
Sources Reuters, Reuters
Good news for the friends of the white lady. Bad news for the campesinos.
ReplyDeletePetro is a communist piece of shit that is going to totally fuck up Colombia. You cannot negotiate with terrorists and criminals. Pray for the people of Colombia.
ReplyDeleteA lot of Colombians are for Petro its a left leening country per capita
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteThey negotiated with Escobar
Delete@2124 hrs.: Concur. Best post on this thread.
DeleteFF71
The palms have been greased
ReplyDeleteWhy is it always these low intensity conflicts in Latin America? And don’t say the United States causes them.
ReplyDeleteCIA, School of the Americas ,Banana Republic,Death Squads ,Fake Drug War .
DeleteThe USA is the reason South America and Central America are in a bad shape .
@0656 hrs.: Correct. The U.S. loves war as it produces copious amounts of profit for various "industrial complexes."
DeleteFF71
I wish all of South and Central America well in their fight for peace and freedom from the shackles that USA has locked on them. Colombians to this day still are stigmatized by the egotistical stupidity of one man in the 80s and 90s, Pablo Escobar. That man terrorized his people and to this day they still get treated like traffickers in the airports. Colombia is leaps and bounds ahead of a lot of "1st world countries" and they will have their day. The corruption of their political sphere at the hands of the rich who prospered since the narco days will come to an end very soon.
ReplyDelete