July 16 was a key day for the total peace policy of Gustavo Petro’s government. It was the day to decide whether or not to end the bilateral ceasefire that the president had agreed with the largest group of dissidents of the extinct FARC guerrilla, the self-proclaimed Central General Staff (EMC), and which came into effect on October 16, 2023. This Tuesday, therefore, announcements were expected, in the midst of negotiations marked by tension and disagreements. The Colombian government’s decision is to declare the ceasefire with all the blocks and fronts that make up the Central General Staff as over, except with the Magdalena Medio Comandante Gentil Duarte Block, the Comandante Jorge Suárez Briceño Block, and the Raúl Reyes front.
“This means that with respect to all other organizations that were part of the Central General Staff, the order given to all military forces is to, with all their capabilities, carry out offensive operations against those organizations, those blocks and fronts that deviated from the generous offer that the national government continued to maintain in the search for peace,” Velásquez said at a press conference.
The government had already suspended the ceasefire in three departments in the southwest of the country — Cauca, Nariño and Valle del Cauca — following actions by dissidents that included attacks against military targets and indigenous communities. The ceasefire, however, continued with the blocs of this group that operated in other regions such as Catatumbo and Magdalena Medio, and in departments such as Meta, Caquetá and Putumayo.
The path to dialogue with the self-proclaimed Central General Staff has been hampered, among other things because the dissidents themselves are fragmented. Throughout the talks, some fronts have remained at the table, others have distanced themselves, and still others have maintained internal discussions about the path to follow. One of the great difficulties has been to achieve common ground with the head of the group: Iván Mordisco, who is known for being dogmatic and disagreeing with political negotiations. Since April 24 of this year, the Government announced that it will no longer negotiate with Mordisco.
Although progress had been made with this group of dissidents—such as their commitment to abide by the rules of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and not to cause forced displacement or confinement of the civilian population, as well as their renunciation of the practice of extortionate kidnapping—no recent agreements have been reached on issues related to illicit crops and the socio-environmental situation in the Amazon, since the EMC is the dominant actor in the so-called arc of Amazonian deforestation.
The talks with the FARC dissidents are part of the Gustavo Petro government’s total peace policy, through which it seeks to maintain simultaneous talks – each one led by a different negotiator, although all under the guidance of the High Commissioner for Peace, Otty Patiño – with different armed groups, with the aim of achieving a definitive end to the conflict.
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Petro’s gamble has multiple open fronts. The government is also holding a dialogue table with another group of dissidents known as the Second Marquetalia, headed by Iván Márquez, who was the chief negotiator in the Havana talks and decided to return to arms. On June 29, in Caracas, this group agreed to a unilateral ceasefire. In the other corner is the ELN, the last armed guerrilla group in Colombia, with which in January the current ceasefire was extended for another six months, an agreement that expires on August 3. “Time is running out” to renew this ceasefire, the government has said, which has asked the guerrillas to resume the negotiation table, which is suspended.
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