LlorentePeace negotiations with the Colombian government have barely begun and are already “at a standstill,” lamented one of the dissident factions of the former FARC guerrilla group, the Second Marquetalia, which demanded that the arrest warrant against its historic leader be lifted.
The process “has not made any progress,” the organization’s number two and chief negotiator, Walter Mendoza, told AFP during an exclusive interview in a rural area of the Nariño department, in the conflict-ridden southwest of Colombia.
This is the first time since its founding in 2019 that the dissident group has given an interview to AFP. It was created after the 2016 peace agreement with the Marxist FARC (for a long time the most powerful guerrilla group in the Americas) by guerrillas who took up arms again after considering themselves “betrayed.”
Talks between the leftist government of President Gustavo Petro and the Second Marquetalia began in late June in neighbouring Venezuela, the rebels’ rear base.
The Second Marquetalia then accepted a unilateral ceasefire, and the two sides agreed to a meeting before 20 July in Nariño, which ultimately did not take place.
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– 2024-09-09 16:56:27
