Colombian President Gustavo Petro is adding new names to the government delegation that next week is expected to start talks in Venezuela with the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrillas, the latest to accept being former Vice Minister of Agriculture José Félix Lafaurie.
«If the President asks me to collaborate in this direction, I will do so with the commitment that obliges me», confirmed Lafaurie, now leader of the Colombian Federation of Cattle Breeders (Fedegan), as reported by RCN.
«I will also do it for a sector like ours, which has been the most violated by violent actors in all Colombian regions. I hope that the desire for total peace that Colombians have can be achieved», said Lafaurie.
Petro’s proposal is especially relevant because Lafaurie is one of his main critics. The former vice-minister of Agriculture is the husband of ‘uribista’ senator María Fernanda Cabal, one of the visible heads of the opposition in the upper house of the Colombian Congress.
In that sense, and in spite of her husband’s decision to join the dialogue table, Cabal has made it clear that she is not to be counted on. «I do not agree with negotiations with the elenos», she said in relation to the ELN guerrillas.
«I made it clear from the beginning, especially since the murder of the 22 cadets,» Cabal said, mentioning the attack in January 2019 in a police school in Bogota that caused the government of Ivan Duque to terminate the negotiations after several months of stalemate.
«I do not trust in any success of any negotiations. If José Félix as a union leader wants to take on that invitation — which I would suggest to him not as a negotiator, but as an observer — and if his union supports him, let him do it, but for my part I am not going to change my way of thinking,» he has concluded.
«It is his role, but for my part he will not have the support as such and I am not going to change my discourse (…) I have convictions, I am not a skin mute», said Cabal to RCN, who has demanded the ELN to give explanations to its victims.
Petro’s announcement took place during the last Fedegan meeting in Barranquilla, where the head of Casa Nariño insisted on the need to demobilize this «armed youth that is killing each other in Colombia».
Among Lafaurie’s companions at the dialogue table will be Senator Iván Cepeda, who is «optimistic» about the reactivation of the talks thanks to the good will of the Government and the ELN.
«In a matter of very few months we have been able to reach the stage of a round table talks and we go with full awareness of how difficult the talks are, but also with all the enthusiasm during this process,» Cepeda said during the Fedegan meeting.
Pending further confirmations for next week’s negotiations, the Colombian government delegation will be led by political scientist and former guerrilla of the April 19th Movement (M-19) Otty Patiño, while the ELN delegation will be led by Israel Ramírez Pineda, alias ‘Pablo Beltrán’.
Achieving peace with the armed groups has been a key issue for Petro since he began his presidential run shortly before mid-year. With his arrival at Casa Nariño, both the Government and the ELN have shown their willingness to reach an agreement and solve the impasse in which the talks with the previous executive of Iván Duque had been trapped.
