Peace dialogues with the ELN: Penitentiary and prison reform was the central theme of the meeting with the Minister of Justice

Senator Iván Cepeda described the meeting between the peace delegations of the national government and the ELNand the Minister of Justice, Nestor Osuna.

This meeting took place on Wednesday February 22 from Mexico, the location of the second round of talks between the two negotiating teams, and the central theme was the reform of the penitentiary and prison systemwhose project has already been presented to the Congress of the Republic.

The government negotiating team member even said Osuna’s visit was the first by a senior official in the current administration, and announced that she is being considered in a new working-at-the-table model. talks that will include more summits with senior executives. .

In this regard, Cepeda pointed out that “the table has decided to listen to the high authorities of the Colombian State so that the policies advanced by the government and the reforms can be made compatible and articulated with the dialogues and agreements that the table product. “

On Wednesday morning, the Deputy Minister of Justice announced Osuna’s trip to Mexico speak with the peace delegations in order to clarify “all doubts and legal ways to achieve the desired total peace”. This announcement was mentioned in the middle of the public hearing conducted by the House First Committee on the Bill 336 of 2023 through which a reform of the penitentiary and prison system is sought.

There, he specified that the initiative rests on three bases: the first concerns more resocialization and less recidivism. In this regard, he noted that “one of the big problems with the capacity of the system is that the people who leave it — 26,000 people a year — have high recidivism rates and many come back. Because? Because they don’t have opportunities outside of prisons because they don’t learn any trades” and in this sense they don’t find an adequate way to enjoy their time.

In passing, he pointed out that a prison quota costs the country 160 million pesos, money that is spent “to make these people’s conditions worse and they walk away with much higher recidivism rates or criminal apprenticeships.” He also pointed out that with this reform initiative, they seek to “boost restorative justice” so that victims can be repaired.

It should be mentioned that one of the main topics of conversation in the second round of negotiations will be the feasibility of implementing a bilateral ceasefire. This after the failed attempt through the decree 2657 signed on December 31, 2022 by the Chairman Gustav Petro. After being informed of this regulation, the guerrilla delegation indicated that it had not been consulted on this measure, which is why it indicated that the peace process was in “crisis”.

Later, antonio garcia, the first commander of the armed negotiation group, criticized the government for not receiving the treatment it deserves, according to him, in terms of dialogue. In response, Otty Patino, head of the government delegation, reiterated that they have political treatment and for this reason they are carrying out dialogues to find a way out of the conflict. He even assured that this process will be different from the one carried out with the extinct FARC in the government of Juan Manuel Santos.

“It is likely that there is this malaise, they expressed it, but they were told that there is a difference in treatment as is obvious, by appointing a Commission representative of many sectors of national life (…) The ELN in the voice of Antonio García does not want to repeat the process with the FARC, they want to make a difference,” Patiño said in a dialogue with Caracol Radio on February 9, a few days before the beginning of the second cycle of dialogues.