In a video released on Friday, the head of the dissident group calling itself the “central general staff of the FARC-EP” was flanked by about fifteen fighters wearing camouflage uniforms and holding assault rifles.
The largest group of fighters who split from the former rebel group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People’s Army (FARC-EP) and rejected the 2016 peace deal announced a suspension of action against Colombian security forces to facilitate conclusion of a bilateral ceasefire agreement.
In a video released on Friday, the head of the dissident group calling itself the “central general staff of the FARC-EP” appeared flanked by about fifteen fighters wearing camouflage uniforms and holding assault rifles.
“All FARC-EP rebel units have been ordered to avoid clashes with government forces as much as possible unless we are attacked,” said the man, who did not identify himself.
According to a report by the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo, it is about Ivan Mordisco, who was announced in July by the right-wing ex-president Ivan Duque that he was killed in an army operation.
The suspension of hostilities is the starting point “to create a climate that will lead together with the government to an agreement and mechanisms for a bilateral ceasefire”, adds the rebel leader, assuring that the video was filmed on Thursday, September 22.
The new president of the left, Gustavos Petros, who took power in early August, has multiplied calls for negotiations in view of the disarmament and dissolution of various armed groups operating in the country, in order to end the violence, to achieve “absolute peace”, such as poses.
Representatives of his government met last Saturday in the district of Kaketa (south) with members of the same dissident faction of the FARC-EP, in order to start a dialogue.
In the video, the rebel leader says he is willing to start “sincere talks to find a way out of the social and armed conflict” that has lasted more than half a century in the Latin American country.
With around 2,000 fighters, according to the figures of the INDEPAZ think tank, the “central general staff of the FARC-EP”, also known as the “Southwest Block” is the largest force of ex-FARC rebels who have disarmed and taken up arms again.
It operates mainly in areas of the Amazon forest in Colombia and on the border with Venezuela and is said to derive funding from drug trafficking and illegal gold mining.
Other FARC dissident groups have also expressed their willingness to engage in dialogue with the new government.
On Thursday, Mr. Petros announced that peace negotiations with the National Liberation Army (ELN, guberistas), officially the last rebel organization continuing the armed struggle in Colombia, would officially resume “in a few days.”
RES-EMP
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