Colombian government extends ceasefire with FARC dissidents for six months

He Colombian government and the Central General Staff (EMC), the biggest dissident in the FARCdecided to extend the bilateral ceasefire, which began on October 16 and ended on Monday, for six months.

By means of a decree signed by the Minister of Defense, Ivan Velasquezthe Government ordered “extend the bilateral and temporary ceasefire of a national nature with territorial impact”and, therefore, continue the order to suspend offensive military operations and police operations against this armed group.

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The Government and the Central General Staff are currently in the third cycle of dialogues, which takes place in Bogotá and ends next Thursday, where precisely the extension of the ceasefire was the central issue.

The current ceasefire began on October 16th and was agreed until January 15th, during which time hostilities had a considerable decrease, to which it was added that the biggest dissident of the disbanded guerrilla announced on December 12th that he resigned from the kidnapping. for economic purposes. .

Continue the agenda

Once the extension of the ceasefire has been agreed, there are also other issues on the table, such as commitments to respect the civilian population, not just in relation to abduction or deprivation of liberty, and other issues such as “comprehensive transformations against illicit economies”, As the Government’s chief negotiator detailed this week, Camilo González I can.

They also want to address the construction of an “environmental agenda with decisions that must be immediately applied in the Amazon area, on issues of non-deforestation, respect for organizations and their autonomy, and response to communities in this matter”. .

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These issues were also discussed in other meetings between the Government and the EMC, which had ups and downs and a breakdown in negotiations after in November they accused each other of non-compliance with the agreement due to military operations in an area in the southwest of the country.

In this sense, on November 5th, the CEM decided to suspend the dialogue table, which was set up just 21 days earlier and included a bilateral ceasefire, due to a “total failure” by the State to fulfill its commitments, once who reported that the Military Forces had not abandoned an area in the department of Cauca (southwest) from which it had been agreed that they would leave.

This announcement came after the retention of around 200 soldiers who arrived in the city of El Plateado (Cauca) to guarantee the security of the elections for mayor and governor on October 29.

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Days later, the community, under pressure from the EMC, forced the military to leave the area, while the guerrillas also asked them to leave their areas of influence, such as the Micay Canyon.

This episode, however, is considered closed and conversations progress in private. The expectation is that at the end of the cycle, in four days, they will provide the press with an overview of what was discussed.

Source: Elcomercio

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I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.