By Luis Jaime Acosta
BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombia’s government expects to begin talks within weeks with two dissident groups founded by former FARC rebels who reject that group’s 2016 peace deal, the country’s top peace official said.
President Gustavo 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 accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
His government has already restarted peace talks with the National Liberation Army (ELN) rebels, which began a second round in Mexico last week, and agreed ceasefires with crime gangs and two FARC dissident factions, the Estado Mayor Central and Segunda Marquetalia.
“We think in the coming weeks this initial phase of coming together and building levels of confidence will take us to a second phase, which is the start of the dialogue phase,” said high peace commissioner Danilo Rueda.
“The dialogue phase will complement the ELN dialogues, beginning two negotiating tables: one with the Estado Mayor Central of the FARC and the other with the FARC of Segunda Marquetalia,” added Rueda, a former human rights activist.
The members of the Estado Mayor Central outright rejected the talks which led to the 2016 deal, while Segunda Marquetalia’s founders rejected the accord three years after it was signed, alleging the state had not upheld its promises.
Some legal experts say Segunda Marquetalia’s abandonment of the accord makes the group ineligible for anything beyond a surrender deal, an issue which Rueda admitted remains to be resolved.
Also pending is the suspension of warrants against dissident leaders and the challenge of making progress at the dissident talks, he said.
Negotiating teams from both the government and the ELN have said this round will focus on agreeing a ceasefire, after the two sides overcame a brief impasse caused by Petro’s announcement of a bilateral deal the rebels later said they had not agreed to.
The government is confident a ceasefire will be agreed.
“This is what we expect: a start to de-escalation and the bilateral ceasefire with the National Liberation Army,” he said.
Top ELN commander Antonio Garcia said recently on social media peace was not a synonym for the laying down of arms, but Rueda said all talks must lead to de-armament.
Beyond hoped-for surrender talks with the Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces – better known as the Clan del Golfo – and Sierra Nevada crime gangs, the government is also in contact with 17 urban gangs from cities like Medellin, Buenaventura and Quibdo, where efforts have already led to ceasefires, Rueda said.
“Peace is with everyone, any group that is excluded from the construction of peace will make a stable, lasting and definitive peace in Colombia inviable,” he said.
(Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta; Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by Alistair Bell)
