Just before the start of the new year, the news broke about the breakthrough in the negotiations in Colombia. President Gustavo Petro told the nation that the government has entered into a six-month ceasefire with all remaining guerrilla groups in the country, writes the AFP news agency. Predecessor received peace prize The breakthrough comes six years after the peace agreement with the country’s largest and most feared guerrilla group FARC. The 2016 Nobel Peace Prize went to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos for the peace agreement with the FARC guerrillas. Photo: Lise Åserud / NTB On 10 December 2016, the then president Juan Manuel Santos was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to conclude the peace agreement with the FARC. – We have agreed on a ceasefire with the ELN, dissidents from the FARC guerrillas as well as the country’s largest drug cartel AGC and the self-defense groups in the Sierra Nevada, current President Petro said on New Year’s Eve. The AGC consists of the remnants of far-right paramilitary groups that laid down their arms earlier in the 2000s. Former guerrilla soldier President Gustavo Petro was elected president of Colombia last year and promised to seek a negotiated solution with all remaining armed groups in the violence-torn country. Pedro is himself a former guerrilla soldier. When he was 17 years old, he joined the left-wing radical guerrilla movement M-19. The photo shows Gustavo Petro on December 7, 2022 when he informed the Colombian people of his plans for peace in the country. Photo: JOAQUIN SARMIENTO / AFP He was arrested in 1985 and spent two years in prison. Petro claims he was tortured in captivity, writes France 24. M-19 was disbanded in 1990. Petro was mayor of the capital Bogota from 2012 to 2015 and is the left’s first president in Colombia. Olive branch for peace One of the biggest and most important tasks for Petro when he was elected last year was to create more peace in Colombia. The country has for many decades been characterized by guerilla wars, but peace agreements in recent years have created hope. – We want a Colombia that, through its diversity, is one common Colombia, Petro said when he was inaugurated as president. He held up an olive branch as a sign of peace as he spoke to his supporters outside the party’s headquarters in Bogota. Despite the government’s efforts to negotiate with the many armed groups, it has not been possible to put a lid on the violence. Last year, almost 100 massacres were recorded with many dead. The government has offered the groups “benevolent legal treatment” in exchange for them giving up their assets, disbanding their organizations and ceasing to operate separate economies. Conflict for 50 years Colombia has for over 50 years been ravaged by armed conflict between the authorities and left-wing guerrillas, far-right paramilitaries and armed drug cartels. Colombia has been characterized by social unrest and conflicts for 50 years. The photo shows a female protester in Bogota on November 25, 2022. She protested against violence against women in Colombia. Photo: LUISA GONZALEZ / Reuters These groups have all been involved in drug activities and fought against each other, as well as against the state, writes NTB. Colombia’s government resumed negotiations with the country’s remaining guerrilla movement ELN in Caracas on 21 November 2022. Norway is a guarantor country Norway is one of the guarantor countries together with Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Ecuador and Venezuela. As a guarantor country, Norway supports the parties on an ongoing basis and contributes both practically, politically and financially. An important task is to protect the negotiation process and ensure that the rules of the game agreed by the parties are adhered to. Norway has been involved in peace and reconciliation work in Colombia for several decades. Norway is one of several guarantor countries in the peace process in Colombia. The picture shows then Foreign Minister Børge Brende and a FARC commander in March 2017. Photo: HANDOUT / Reuters This work includes a number of initiatives on dialogue between changing governments and the Colombian guerrilla groups FARC and ELN. Negotiated with ELN since 2017 ELN has participated in various forms of peace negotiations under seven different governments. However, the negotiations under former President Juan Manuel Santos did not result in an agreement. Under President Duque in the years 2018 to 2022, it was not possible to get the negotiations started again. After the ELN in January 2019 carried out a car bombing against the police academy in Bogota, the most serious armed attack in the capital since 2003, the president broke off the negotiations. The peace process with the FARC Norway was, together with Cuba, a guarantor country for the peace process between the government of Colombia and the FARC. From FARC negotiations in Havana in September 2015. From the left Colombian President Santos, in lost Raul Castro and on the right Farc leader Timoleon Jimenez also known as Timochenko. Photo: LUIS ACOSTA / AFP The negotiations were launched in Oslo in October 2012 after prior secret negotiations between the parties on a framework agreement for the process. A final peace agreement was signed in November 2016 after four years of negotiations in Havana. Cuba. The Security Council decided in January 2016 to establish an observer force for monitoring and verification of a final ceasefire and cessation of arms. From September 2018, the mandate dealt with the verification of security guarantees and getting former Farc soldiers reintegrated into society. Extension of the mandate is assessed annually in the Security Council, at the request of the parties.
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All guerrilla groups have signed a ceasefire in Colombia – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
