As peace negotiations progress, rebel groups began handing over weapons to the Colombian government
The Ministry of Defense said on Saturday that Pasto (AP) (AP) in Colombia – a group called “Southern Civilians” has begun handing over its weapons to the Colombian government.
About 250 combatants operate in the Nariño Proutince in southwestern Colombia and have been in talks with the government since last year.
“It’s a historic moment,” Defense Minister Pedro Sanchez said at a ceremony in the town of Pasto.
Sanchez said that over the past two days, civilians in the south have handed over land mines, grenades and rockets to the troops that destroyed them.
“Farmers will be able to walk without worrying about encountering minefields,” Sanchez said.
Until recently, civilians in the South were part of the National Liberation Army or the ELN, a group of about 6,000 combatants who were still fighting the Colombian government.
In May last year, civilians left the ELN and began stewardship with President Gustavo Petro. This angered the ELN leadership and hindered negotiations with the Colombian government.
Petro, a member of his youthful rebel group, has been in peace talks with nine separate rebel groups and drug trafficking gangs in Colombia, a strategy called “complete peace.”
Most of these negotiations failed to reduce violence, and so far only civilians in the South have agreed to begin the transition to civilian life.
The Petro government faced “the civilians in the South are only one of nine problems.”
“And they are just a small part of the armed groups in Colombia,” he said.
Arias said the government has been trying to reach regional agreements with smaller factions of rebel groups that could reduce population pressure rather than larger national agreements.
“Talks with civilians in the South are the only negotiations that could eventually be successful,” Arias said. But he added that some issues still need to be addressed, such as legal mechanisms in which victims of the group are able to seek justice and truth.
In 2016, Colombia signed a peace agreement with the largest rebel group in the United States, the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces or the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces, in which more than 13,000 combatants laid down their weapons.
But the evacuation of the Revolutionary Forces of Colombia from certain rural areas created a power vacuum that a smaller group was trying to fill.
The Colombian government is now working to provide security in remote rural areas where various groups are fighting for drug trafficking routes and natural resources, while they forcefully recruit minors and tax local businesses to raise funds.
Earlier this year, more than 50,000 people left their homes in Catatumbo on the border with Venezuela earlier this year after the ELN attacked the village, which accused farmers of supporting rival groups.
The Colombian government suspended peace talks with ELN after these attacks, and Petro accused its leaders of becoming “greedy” drug traffickers who betrayed revolutionary ideals.
In Nariño, located on the border between Colombia and Ecuador, local officials hope that the Colombian government will keep the rebel groups away from the region by providing larger security and economic development projects.
“If a peace agreement is reached between the South and the government, we want to learn more about the strategies to protect this territory,” said Giovanny Cardenas, a human rights official in the town of Samanigo.
“If this group is unstable and another group comes here to continue the same war, it will be miserable.”
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Rueda reported on Bogota, Colombia.
