Peace For Colombia. Truce With Last Guerillas.

Peace could finally come to Colombia, one of Latin America’s worst hit countries, where environmentalists, trade unionists, police officers, and ordinary passers-by are being killed.

After years of slow negotiations, the Colombian government managed to agree on a ceasefire with one of the last guerrilla groups in the country, the fearsome EMC-FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia).

The agreement, which will initially last 10 months, is part of the peace process promoted by Colombian President Gustavo Petro. The authorities and people of Colombia hope to finally achieve the peaceful and complete disarmament of all guerrilla groups still operating in the second most populous country in South America (51 million inhabitants).

According to local media, “the ceasefire will give the green light to peace talks on permanent disarmament, which are due to begin on October 8.”

The EMC-FARC is “irreconcilable” to 3,000 far-left militants who did not want to join the 2016 agreement between Bogota and the FARC, Colombia’s main guerrilla group.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro, a former activist of the “revolutionary” group M-19, knows radical movements from the inside. Before the truce with EMC-FARC in January, they negotiated a ceasefire with another important guerrilla group, the National Liberation Army (ELN).

The Colombian government accuses EMC-FARC leaders of “large-scale involvement in illegal mining operations that are causing irreparable damage to nature, but, above all, in drug trafficking.” According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), coca cultivation in Colombia in 2022 exceeded 230 thousand hectares of land, and the production of narcotic substances grew from year to year and reached 1,738 tons in 2022, which is 24% more than in 2021.