The Colombian government and the main dissident faction of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) will begin peace talks and a ceasefire on October 8, both sides announced Tuesday.
“It was agreed to set up the peace dialogue table on October 8 in Tibu” (north-east), near the border with Venezuela, indicates a joint statement between the emissaries of President Gustavo Petro and “Ivan Mordisco”, head of the FARC central staff (EMC).
The EMC is made up of rebels who refused to sign the historic 2016 peace deal between the government and Marxist guerrillas.
This date will also mark “the implementation of a temporary bilateral ceasefire of a national nature” implying “the cessation of offensive operations”, adds the text. This truce is to last 10 months.
“The objective of this peace-building process is to dignify the way of life of Colombians who are the direct victims of social inequality and armed confrontation,” the statement added.
Delegates from both camps met on Tuesday in the mountains of the Cauca department (southwest), in the presence of representatives of the international community (UN, European Union, Organization of American States, representatives of the Venezuelan government and three European countries). , noted an AFP photographer.
Their joint press conference took place in the middle of coca leaf plantations, in one of the regions of the country, Cauca, most disturbed by violence.
All participants were in civilian clothes and dressed in white, including the EMC’s main negotiator, known as Commander Andrey Avendaño, and the government’s High Commissioner for Peace, Danilo Rueda.
“This is the right moment for Colombia to move towards a scenario of peace,” commented Andrey Avendaño.
“Today we are faced with many challenges,” said Mr. Rueda. The “country is faced with the skepticism that exists in our society with regard to this peace process and that is why we must show more clearly the facts and the coherence of what we write on paper”, he said. -He underlines.
The dissidents, estimated at nearly 3,500 men who consider themselves the true heirs of the FARC, have brought together in recent months several other “Fronts” operating in various regions of Colombia, mainly in the Amazon, on the Pacific coast and on the Venezuelan border. .
They profit greatly from drug trafficking and other illegal activities such as clandestine mining.
The dissidents have notably increased their operations against the security forces in recent weeks, also attempting to increase their zone of influence. This Tuesday, they “committed to respecting the free exercise of voting and electoral campaigns”, while the country is organizing local elections on October 29.
Gustavo Petro had announced a bilateral truce with the country’s five main armed groups on December 31, but suspended the agreement with the EMC in May, when the rebels killed four young indigenous people who opposed their recruitment.
President Petro seeks to end six decades of armed conflict by leading peace negotiations with all illegal armed groups: the FARC dissidents, the Guevarist guerrillas of the National Liberation Army (ELN), but also paramilitaries and several groups criminals.
19/09/2023 23:18:01 – Suarez (Colombia) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP