The high command of dissidents will meet to define who will be their negotiators in dialogues with the government

As part of total peace policyannounced by the president Gustavo Petro at the beginning of his government, the Office of the High Commissioner for Peace (OACP), recently received a letter signed by at least 20 senior commandos of the FARC dissidents.

In the letter, they let it be known that, in the coming days, they will meet to evaluate and select their future negotiatorsbefore a possible dialog table between the Colombian government and the criminal organization.

“The OACP has received the names of 20 members of this organization who will participate in a meeting of commanders to define their delegates to possibly start a table of peace talks,” read a statement released by the High Commission.

The meeting would be attended by Javier Alonso Velosa, better known as aka John Mechasleader of the 33rd Front who, in 2021, would have ordered the attack on the helicopter of the then president, Ivan Duque Marquez. This drew criticism, from the former president, as the meeting would mean the temporary suspension of arrest warrants against those attending the meeting.

“I want Colombia to continue moving forward in building peace, all Colombians want that. But peace must be built without impunity and these criminals, beyond the fact that they attacked me as President of the Republic, are people who don’t care about the generosity of the State,” Duque said. , before warning that the policy of ‘complete peace‘ could becomefatal peaceif these types of spaces are open to him.

Even the Mayor of Bogotá criticized the measure, recalling that Alonso Velosa is responsible for the death of two minors in the attack with explosives at a CAI in the city City of Bolivar“Alias ​​John Mechas of the FARC murdered Salomé and Daniel, and intended to kill many more with two terrorist attacks in Ciudad Bolívar last year in Bogotá,” he said. declared via his Twitter account on Wednesday morning February 22.

The request for the lifting of the arrest warrants against the high commands who will attend the meeting has already been made by the High Commissioner, but is awaiting a response from the pursuit. His representative, Francois Barbosaduring a meeting with President Petro on Monday, February 20, questioned the lifting of the measure and asked for more clarity at the request of those who have been recognized by the executive as members of the central staff of the extinct guerrillas:

Concretely, they hope to determine whether they “are part of an outlawed armed group which has decided not to sign the aforementioned peace agreement and whether, therefore, they are members of a criminal organization with which a peace process will be carried out. “”.

Whereupon, the High Commissioner for Peace, Danilo Rueda, was forced to specify that with the lifting of the measure, the investigations will not stop against John Mechas and the other commanders, as well as neither will they benefit from an amnesty forgiveness.

“The designation as a representative member of the EMC-FARC is only intended to facilitate rapprochement”, he said, and his office clarified that it would not be “the first time that a government has resorted to this type of measure to move forward in peacebuilding.”

The names on the list are part of Central staffa faction of the extinct FARC that did not participate in the agreements with Juan Manuel Santos in 2016, therefore the establishment of a possible dialogue table with this group -led by Iván Mordisco- seems a closer scenario than the setting setting up a space for discussion with dissidents the Second Marquetaliaunder the command of Iván Márquez.