2023-10-11 07:01:00
The recently announced cessation of hostilities between the Government and the guerrillas of the Central General Staff reassured a good part of the communities and bothered others, who consider that it is a “bad of warm water that has to move towards clear actions for the relief of the civilian population.”
This was said by a social leader from Caquetá, who also insisted that the failed installation of the table left a tense and uncertain atmosphere in the areas most affected by the conflict.
In fact, last Sunday the country experienced a moment of maximum heat between the delegations of that table and the communities that attended the event, who ended up demanding from the high commissioner for peace, Danilo Rueda, that “he would not leave until will sign the ceasefire.”
But the long-awaited bilateral cessation did not arrive and, in response, President Petro himself signed this Monday decree 1640 of 2023 with which he ordered “to suspend offensive military operations and special police operations against the Central General Staff” for a period. of five days between October 10 and 16 of this year.
This action was understood by many as a “desperate measure by the Government to not look bad and not lose the reins of a process in which we are beginning to stop believing,” as the Caqueteño leader said.
However, other experts see it as “an advance that, although small, speaks of a good start with a guerrilla that is very difficult to negotiate,” as said by a researcher who works with communities and armed groups in the most complex areas of the country.
Regarding the latter, we must remember that the EMC dissidents, led by Iván Mordisco, are a rather difficult group that learned about the peace process between the Government of Juan Manuel Santos and the extinct FARC guerrilla and that decided to leave after concluding that They did not believe in what was agreed.
“With this background, it is known that the General Staff is a particularly difficult group and that, in addition, it negotiates without believing in the real intentions of the Government. That is its nature and that is why it requires this type of enlistment,” analyzed the expert.
But, beyond what is believed in the center of the country and in the capital cities, the real suffering is experienced closely by rural communities and remote centers of departments such as Cauca, Nariño, Antioquia and Caquetá, the four most affected regions. due to the violent actions of said guerrilla according to the most recent report from the Institute of Development and Peace Studies, Indepaz.
This is how they live the cessation
In Cauca, for example, the EMC unleashed a wave of violence with attacks and explosions that left at least five civilians dead and several damage to public infrastructure.
And not only that, in addition to those events that quickly became national news, several of the affected municipalities “continue to endure confinements, checkpoints, sieges by all armed groups and recruitments,” among other violent actions by the EMC, as Mauricio recounted. Capaz Lectamo, member of the Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca and former senior advisor of the national CRIC.
“Despite all this – says the leader Capaz Lectamo – the Government’s declaration gives a foot of tranquility in urban centers such as Suárez, Cauca, Toribio, Caloto, etc (…) and is a good setting to discuss the details and the disagreements that we have regarding the approach to peace.”
And Martha Cecilia Camacho, municipal representative of El Charco, Nariño, agrees with that. According to her, the communities are also urgently asking for actions to stop the conflict and were grateful for this cessation that, “although it is temporary and very short, helps to feel the stop in violence now,” she said.
In addition to that, both leaders of Cauca and Nariño insisted that the de-escalation of the conflict has been felt since the EMC announced that it would stop attacks on the Public Force and the civilian population.
“These are things that are not heard on radio or TV, but that are felt immensely here. The mere fact that a community is no longer confined or that people can send their children to study is a very big change between being in the middle of bullets and in a cessation,” said Mauricio.
Even so, the truth is that this five-day decree and the little progress at the table with the dissidents do not completely calm the communities. “There is relief, but we remain concerned about some levels of siege such as checkpoints in indigenous populations or conflicts between indigenous authorities that defend the territory and armed groups,” Capaz concluded.
For now, both the EMC and the Public Force have promised not to shoot at each other while the rapprochements advance and October 15 arrives, the day in which both delegations will sit down again – for the second time in less than a month – to try to install officially come to the table and sign a verified ceasefire that brings lasting and reliable peace to the communities.
The details of Petro’s decree
It was the same president Gustavo Petro who signed decree 1460 this Tuesday that ordered the suspension of offensive operations against the EMC. In addition to this order that goes to the entire Public Force, the document also establishes the creation of a special contingency team made up of a representative from each side, that is, from the Ministry of Defense, the Military Forces, the National Police, the delegation of the Government and the FARC dissidents in order to monitor the suspension of military operations.
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