Gustavo Petro took another step, and a particularly risky one, in his project of bringing total peace to Colombia.
That Thursday he announced that in the next few days a multilateral ceasefire will begin between the Colombian State and all the organizations willing to dialogue to seek agreements with the State.
This would mean an immediate reduction in violence, at least with those organizations, but it would also be a huge challenge in practical terms, since dismissals require verification mechanisms to trace any act of violence, and thus know if one of the parties violated the agreement. .
"In a matter of days, a public issue will be raised: the possibility of a multilateral ceasefire that would be the beginning of the end of violence, with all those who adhere to that possibility," said the president at the mission's headquarters. of Colombia before the United Nations, in front of New York's Central Park, minutes before embarking on his return trip to Bogotá after having given a resounding speech at the General Assembly of that organization.
“It will involve all those who want a negotiation process with the justice system in Colombia to dismantle criminal organizations.
What we propose is to cease hostilities, death, cease fire.
Since it is a plurality of organizations, that is called a multilateral ceasefire,” he clarified.
He also referred to what will happen to the Armed Forces when the cessation takes place "the Army is going to work, reaching the territories that it has not been able to reach before because the organizations are controlling the territory," he responded to a question.
This response is in line with what Defense Minister Iván Velásquez explained in an interview with EL PAÍS: “Some interpret that the Army is now inhibited from acting, but that is not even a thought,” he explained.
On Wednesday, in a conversation with EL PAÍS, the president spoke about his policy of total peace.
He said that dialectics, dialogue, was a good approach to realities.
“All those organizations with names that are no longer sufficient, a labyrinth, have sent letters to the Government asking to open talks.
Their way is to negotiate legal benefits with the justice system so that they stop their activity”, he revealed.
The cessation shows the size of the challenges and the ambition of the total peace proposal.
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