The Colombian House of Representatives has approved on Wednesday the bill by which the Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, is empowered to begin negotiations with the different armed groups in the country.
The bill has been approved in the lower house with the vote in favor of 125 parliamentarians, while only 13 of the congressmen have voted against it, after it had passed the approval of the Colombian Senate this Monday.
The so-called ‘total peace’ thus becomes law, so that the successor governments to Petro’s will be obliged to keep the negotiations in force and comply with the agreements reached.
This law promotes the initiation of peace talks with armed and political organizations, such as the ELN or FARC dissidents, as well as approaches to high-impact criminal structures to demobilize.
In this sense, both the government and the armed groups must appoint representatives to create a peace cabinet to implement development plans with public policies.
«It is a message to Colombia, for the popular vote of June 19 that led Gustavo Petro and Francia Márquez to be president and vice-president of Colombia with the enormous commitment to seek an integral peace, without exclusions, an inclusive peace a total peace for Colombia», said the Minister of the Interior, Alfonso Prada, in statements picked up by RCN Radio.
Likewise, the Congress has rescued the proposal for the gradual elimination of compulsory military service, which had been overturned by the Senate, by approving the social service for peace as an alternative.
«Very good for the House of Representatives for defending the articles of the social service for Peace for the youth. Undoubtedly, opening possibilities for the youth is the best way for Colombia,» Petro celebrated in his profile on the social network Twitter.
For his part, the Minister of Defense, Iván Velásquez, has indicated that the country needs an «Army of professionals and not one composed in high number of high school graduates, which puts a large number of dead, of victims of the conflict and violence», reports RCN radio station.
