Around a hundred guerrillas laid down their arms on Thursday in southern Colombia as part of negotiations with the government of left-wing President Gustavo Petro, rewarding its policy of “total peace” with different armed groups which had so far had little success.
Three days before the second round of the presidential election, 99 members of the Bolivarian Army National Coordination (CNEB) were welcomed in a dedicated area in the middle of the jungle in the department of Putumayo. In camouflage uniforms, they symbolically placed their rifles in a huge container bearing the inscription “I bet on life, I keep my word for peace”, under the surveillance of international organizations and the Catholic Church.
The CNEB, a splinter group of the ex-Farc who signed a historic peace agreement with the Colombian state in 2016, is the only guerrilla group continuing the discussions initiated by Petro since the start of his mandate in 2022. Far-left guerrillas, far-right paramilitary organizations and drug trafficking groups have all slammed the door on negotiations.
It is “a very strong and powerful message for Colombian society, at a time when there is a lot of noise of war and overall violence is escalating,” said Armando Novoa, head of the government’s peace delegation to the CNEB.
The guerrillas must remain for ten months on these lands, previously devoted to coca crops, while awaiting definitive disarmament and clarification of their legal situation. They were offered hygiene kits and books before entering the area monitored by the army, housed in houses equipped with solar panels.
Hygiene kits and books
The laying down of arms is unusual in this type of negotiations in Colombia, a country affected by six decades of internal armed conflict. The FARC did so in 2006, a year after signing the agreement which earned their signatories the Nobel Peace Prize.
These CNEB members in Putumayo were obeying the orders of Walter Mendoza, an ex-FARC who had signed the peace but then took up arms in 2019. He was not present at the ceremony on Thursday. The government estimates that the CNEB could have between 2,000 and 2,500 members.
If this guerrilla controls key territories for drug production on the border with Ecuador, its power is modest compared to that of the National Liberation Army (ELN) or other FARC dissidences, such as that commanded by alias Ivan Mordisco, the most wanted rebel in the country.
Colombians are invited on Sunday to choose between the continuation of Gustavo Petro’s “total peace” with his designated successor, left-wing senator Ivan Cepeda, and hard-right supporter Abelardo de la Espriella who, on the contrary, promises direct confrontation with armed groups.
Abelardo de la Espriella could, in the event of victory, end discussions with the CNEB, which would cancel the suspension of the arrest warrants of the 99 who laid down their arms on Thursday.
