After nine months displaced, nearly 8,000 families from the Abades subregion, in Nariño, returned to their homes. They forcibly left the indigenous reservations of La Montaña (in the municipality of Samaniego) and El Sande (in Santacruz de Guachavés), since last August, due to the war between the Communeros del Sur Front and the dissidents of the FARC of the Bloc Western.
The Government of Nariño, headed by Luis Alfonso Escobar, led this return plan in coordination with the Mayor’s Office of Samaniego, the Victims Unit and the national government. The Secretary of Peace of the Government, Alex González, also participated in the return ceremonies.
New milestone of the territorial peace process. In this subregion of Nariño, the government is carrying out a regional peace laboratory with the communities and the Frente Comuneros del Sur, a recent dissident of the ELN guerrilla.
Within the framework of this process, it was possible to guarantee the conditions for the return of the communities to their territories. “This is what the territorialization of peace is about; for the children to return to their territory, to return to those townships, after being confined in the Samaniego Coliseum for almost a year,” said Governor Escobar.
Humanitarian demining advances. After last year’s war, the roads and indigenous territories were full of antipersonnel mines that the Communeros del Sur planted against the FARC dissidents.
The government and this armed group have advanced a humanitarian demining plan that remains firm. Next week it is expected that there will be a first meeting, with the Mayor’s Office of Samaniego, to firmly start this process that seeks to remove the mines from the region.
Why does it matter? In addition to the return of the displaced, this territorial peace process has unleashed a crisis in the national negotiation with the ELN, since the command of this guerrilla rejects this process. His top commander, “Antonio García”, attacked the demining process today on his X account.
To understand in depth the territorial peace process that Petro is carrying out in Nariño, we recommend this chronicle.
