02:19 PM
The attack by the dissidents of the FARC Central General Staff against the father of Vice President Francia Márquez increasingly distances the possibilities of the Government reactivating the negotiations with these illegals that operate in the southwest of the country.
Camilo González Posso – the Government’s chief negotiator at the table with the EMC faction that is still willing to talk – rejected the attack that occurred in the rural area of Jamundí and ruled out the resumption of dialogue with the criminals of the southwest.
“All armed groups that operate in the north of Cauca and in the south of the Valley are required to condemn all violent actions against the civilian population,” González Posso said in a video.
The negotiator assured that as long as there is no respect for life and actions such as the recruitment of minors and the use of weapons against the civilian population do not cease, there will be no possibility of negotiating.
“The only way a dialogue can be established is with unilateral, prior actions, de-escalation, and respect for the population. “Believing that the Government is going to be forced to a negotiating table is something that makes no sense.”added Posso, later, in dialogue with W Radio.
In the departments of Cauca, Valle and Nariño, the ceasefire has been suspended since March 17.
The Government of President Gustavo Petro ordered a “total offensive” against the illegal EMC after they murdered the indigenous leader Carmelina Yule. Since then, a wave of violence has been unleashed that has included clashes, detonations of explosives, terrorist attacks, harassment and confinements.
As an urgent measure, the Ministry of Defense activated a strategy that it called the “security caravans”, a mechanism similar to the one that was used in the 90s to confront the “miracle fisheries” and that, now, seeks to avoid terrorist attacks with the accompaniment on the roads of 100 police officers and 100 Special Forces soldiers.
“It is important to contain the EMC at this time and prevent it from continuing to grow and, at the same time, begin to make combined strategies to dismantle it as an armed group. This is a highly dangerous group due to the areas where they operate.”, analyzed Laura Bonilla, deputy director of the Peace and Reconciliation Foundation in dialogue with EL COLOMBIANO.
The Government will sit down again at the dialogue table – with the EMC faction that continues to show a desire for peace – at the beginning of July.
Senators such as Ariel Ávila, president of the Human Rights Commission, had warned that the EMC mobilized troops from Cauca and Valle to other departments where there is a ceasefire such as Tolima and Huila. Therefore, he asked the Government to get up from the table in full with the EMC.
“The recommendation to the Government is that it review the ceasefire with the EMC and it should lift it in Huila and Tolima. In general, the negotiation with the EMC as a whole should be reviewed. “That is a confederation and from there I think nothing is going to come of it,” Ávila had said.
Bonilla, for his part, assured that the State must evaluate its capacity to contain several sources of violence at the same timein case he gets up from the dialogue table with the remaining faction of the EMC.
The Government is currently negotiating with the EMC faction that operates in Catatumbo, Arauca and Caquetá.
