The government of President Gustavo Petro will assess the compliance with the ceasefire agreed with the main armed groups every two months and which will be in force during the first half of the year, the Colombian interior minister reported this Monday, international media reported.
“The most difficult task there is verification (…) It is expected that every two months there will be a cut-off on how it evolves in each of the territories, with each of these organizations,” explained the the interior minister, Alfonso Prada.
On New Year’s Eve, President Petro announced a bilateral truce between the government and five armed groups from January 1 to June 30, 2023 with a view to negotiations to defuse the long-running internal conflict.
The government keeps secret the decrees detailing the ceasefire agreements with the guerrillas of the National Liberation Army (ELN), two dissident groups of the FARC, the largest drug gang known as the Clan del Golfo and the Self-Defense Forces of the Sierra Nevada an paramilitary origin.
Under his “total peace” policy, Petro aspires to stop the spiral of violence that followed the historic agreement signed with the bulk of the FARC guerrillas in 2016.
Without going into details, Prada assured that the dialogues will be “different” with each organization, depending on whether “they move in the illegal economy” or “have political status.”
“We are not going to have it easy, we have it very clear,” admitted the presidential spokesman.
The United Nations, the Organization of American States, the Ombudsman’s Office and the Catholic Church supported the truce.
It should be noted that some 15,000 combatants will take advantage of this decision according to recent calculations by the Institute for Development and Peace Studies (Indepaz).
Source: International media
