The European Union has described as an «important milestone for the Colombian people» the signing of the so-called ‘total peace’ law that allows the Colombian government, headed by Gustavo Petro, to hold talks with armed groups.
«The European Union welcomes the signing of the ‘total peace’ law by President Gustavo Petro following the adoption in the Senate and House of Representatives with a large majority,» EU foreign affairs spokesman Peter Stano said on his official Twitter profile. The EU «supports all efforts to consolidate peace in Colombia,» he added.
This initiative will allow to build negotiations with those who are «outside the law» and will serve as a legal framework to negotiate or demobilize armed groups such as the National Liberation Army (ELN) or dissidents of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
Petro proposed during his electoral campaign for the Presidency to implement a ‘total peace’ with the objective of promoting dialogue with armed and political organizations with the intention of ending «the bloodbath» to which the country had been subjected for more than 50 years.
However, the measure has not convinced several retired Army generals, such as Sergeant Major Luis Orlando Lenis, who serves as president of a military foundation, and maintains that «the ‘total peace’ is simply another means of impunity» since it would open the possibility that guerrillas such as Luciano Marín Arango, alias ‘Iván Marquez’, could be pardoned.
Retired soldier Carlos Julio Rodríguez, who has assured that he is part of the military group that is concerned that this new Law 418 – its original name – will serve to violate the rights of the victims «as happened,» he said, with the peace agreements of 2016 with the FARC guerrillas.
Despite these claims, the Colombian government has clarified on several occasions that these eventual negotiations are aimed at armed groups of a political nature, such as the National Liberation Army (ELN), not the FARC dissidents of which the aforementioned ‘Iván Marquez’ is a member.
