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The Petro government suspends the ceasefire with one of the FARC dissidents for the massacre of four indigenous youths

2023-05-22T17:00:47.067Z

Highlights: President Gustavo Petro suspends the ceasefire with the Central General Staff, one of the two major dissidents of the former FARC guerrilla. The decision to end the truce was made after confirming that armed men from these dissidents held and killed four indigenous youths in the department of Putumayo. "The unilateral rupture will unleash war and multiply the dead, wounded and prisoners, contrary to a policy of total peace," the dissidence says. The dissidence affirms that the government has been "the least serious to engage in talks"


The president of Colombia announced that all offensive military operations against the Central General Staff, led by Iván Mordisco, in the departments of Meta, Caquetá, Guaviare and Putumayo are reactivated.


The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, announced on Monday morning that he suspends the ceasefire with the Central General Staff, one of the two major dissidents of the former FARC guerrilla, as of the next 72 hours. "It is reported that the bilateral ceasefire that currently existed with this armed group in the departments of Meta, Caquetá, Guaviare and Putumayo is suspended and all offensive operations are reactivated," reads a press release published by the Presidency of the Republic.

The decision to end the truce was made after confirming that armed men from these dissidents held and killed four indigenous youths in the department of Putumayo. "Yesterday the murder of four minors by the Carolina Ramirez Front, of the Central General Staff, was known. An atrocious fact that questions the will to build a country in peace. There is no justification whatsoever for this kind of crime," the presidency said.

Communiqué to the public on the ceasefire with the EMC-FARC. pic.twitter.com/Wunu8xIQuT

— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) May 22, 2023

At the end of a security council in which Defense Minister Iván Velásquez and the leadership of the armed forces participated, the government explained that the suspension of the ceasefire occurred after listening to delegates from the communities and the Extraordinary Security Council. The president announced that the military actions will be carried out under the respect of human rights and International Humanitarian Law.

The Government also explained that delegates from the Central General Staff were summoned to inform them of the decision, but excused themselves from attending. President Petro insists that the cessation was terminated due to the serious violation of International Humanitarian Law by this organization outside the law, added to other facts that generate uncertainty and anxiety in the population. "If the bilateral ceasefire is not effective in certain territories to protect the life and integrity of the entire population, it makes no sense to persist in it," the president said.

The Central General Staff responded on Monday to the government's decision. "The unilateral rupture will unleash war and multiply the dead, wounded and prisoners, contrary to a policy of total peace." According to the statement of that dissidence, the ceasefire that was signed since September 22, 2022, "was always unilateral because the military operations, which again suggest paramilitarism as state policy, never ceased."

In the statement, the dissidents assure that they did not commit the massacre of the indigenous youths: "The facts that we are accused of were never verified and we insist that in Caquetá, Meta and Guaviare there have been no combats of any kind, extortion or executions."

In contrast to these statements, the high commissioner for peace, Danilo Rueda, confirmed through a press release that the Carolina Ramirez Front, part of the so-called Central General Staff, was responsible for the multiple murder. "We emphatically reject this criminal conduct of the Carolina Ramírez Front of the EMC-FARC that ignores IHL and constitutes an attack on peace. According to international conventions and protocols, the recruitment of minors is a war crime that affects children, as well as their families and communities."

🚨 #Atención | Press Release: The extermination of indigenous peoples by armed violence and structural injustice must stop. pic.twitter.com/JocZNkO9IU

— High Commissioner Peace (@ComisionadoPaz) May 21, 2023

The dissidence affirms that the government of Gustavo Petro has been "the least serious to engage in talks." According to the organization, "the Oversight, Monitoring and Verification Mechanism has not yet been installed and there have been permanent violations of its protocol on issues ranging from the spokesperson to pronounce on aspects of the ceasefire to the incessant need to verify facts on the ground."

The murder of the four indigenous people and the subsequent decision to terminate the ceasefire have aroused reactions from the opposition. Uribista Senator María Fernanda Cabal wrote on her Twitter account: "The first person responsible for the escalation of violence is Petro; that under the deception of total peace, left Colombia in the hands of terrorists. If the FARC had been persecuted and not agreed to supposed ceasefires, events such as the massacre of 4 children would have been avoided." For his part, Senator Iván Cepeda, defender of the peace negotiation, responded: "Now the detractors of peace, the same ones who manufactured the violence we suffer today, say that the ceasefires fail. In reality, the protection of the people does not concern them. They seek to discourage any initiative to end the escalation of the confrontation."

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2023-05-22

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