Dissident FARC rebels who rejected a landmark peace deal in 2016 said they were ready on Sunday to engage with the government to start negotiations to get their group out of the armed conflict.
This is cause for hope in a country eaten away by sixty years of armed struggle and drug trafficking: the dissidence of the FARC, long the most powerful Marxist guerrillas in Latin America, says it is ready, Sunday, April 16, to negotiate peace. Result of the efforts of the current Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who made “total peace” the priority of his action when he came to power in the summer of 2022.
The “FARC dissent” are 2,000 to 3,000 fighters who refused to sign the peace agreement validated in 2016 by the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces, a historic agreement that did not put an end to the abuses, quite the contrary . Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced on December 31 a “truce” with five armed groups, including this central staff of the FARC which said it was ready on Sunday April 16 to enter the peace process.
Given for dead, the number 1 of dissidence reappears
For this, the EMC-FARC organized a high mass in the pure tradition of the Marxist guerrillas of the second half of the 20th century, bringing together thousands of people, mainly peasants, in the Yari savannah, in the south of the country. Festive sound system, flags, portraits of the deceased leaders of the Marxist group and, on the podium, Ivan Mordisco, number 1 of the dissidence, given for dead last year. He pledged to “accompany the process of dialogue” with the government.
A step towards peace? This is what Gustavo Petro, the first left-wing president of Colombia, himself a former guerrilla, who came to power on August 7, 2022, hopes. He has made “total peace” the great ambition of his mandate. To this end, it aims to disarm both guerrillas and drug cartels, while tackling the inequalities and misery that fuel violence.
On September 20, 2022, from the rostrum of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Gustavo Petro declared that “the hour of peace has come […] There is no total peace without social, economic and environmental justice”.
Gold and cocaine, financial windfalls for all armed groups
His idea is to negotiate with political organizations, such as the FARC or the National Liberation Army, the ELN, but also to offer reduced sentences to drug traffickers who submit to justice and abandon their arms.
However, this bet turns out to be risky. Evidenced by what the Gulf Clan, the largest criminal organization in the country, made of its promise of a ceasefire at the end of December: its paramilitary militias have since continued their abuses, also leading a revolt of small gold miners in the northwest of the country. This revolt serves the Gulf Clan, because gold and cocaine finance all Colombian armed groups, whether political or criminal.
Colombia is the world’s largest producer of cocaine. And nothing has changed, neither the total war on drug trafficking waged by Gustavo Petro’s predecessors, nor the 10 billion dollars in American aid paid over 20 years.