Colombia to Resume Peace Dialogue

Colombia’s government and the Alternative Revolutionary Force of the Commons (FARC) political party Thursday resumed the peace agreement’s implementation dialogue, almost a month after bilateral negotiations ceased.

FARC’s Monitoring, Promotion, and Verification Commission for the Implementation of the Peace Accords (CSIVI) sent a letter to Presidential Adviser on Post-Conflict Stabilization and Consolidation Emilio Archila, establishing Peace Agreement implementation basis.

FARC- CSIVI delegates Rodrigo Granda, Jairo Estrada and Ronald Rojas, signed the missive.

 “We propose to consult on 25 June and that the technical secretariat prepares a meeting’s agenda for the following two months, to be settled at our next reunion,” CSVI stated.

The CSVI stressed that Arcila’s proposal of a meeting on May 28 was not coherent with negotiations’ requirements due to governing representatives’ majority absence.

Bilateral conversations ceased on May 14, after High Commissioner for Peace in Colombia Miguel Ceballos commended Cuba’s inclusion in terrorism friendly nations’ list. 

“We must reiterate our interest in greater clarity about Cuba’s place as a guarantor of implementation, which has supported and continues to support the peace process, as we expressed in the statement of our suspended meeting on May 14,” the CSVI said.

On June 10, FARC denounced former guerrilla and social leader’s extermination to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michele Bachelet.

Since the signing of the Peace Agreement on Sep. 26, 2016, at least 220 social leaders and former guerrilla fighters have been assassinated in Colombia.