Colombia makes peace talks with ELN illegal, demobilization of armed groups virtually impossible

[Judi Lynn]

by Adriaan Alsema February 6, 2019

Colombia’s President Ivan Duque on Wednesday presented a new hard-line security policy that virtually ends possibilities to negotiate with illegal armed groups.

Duque’s “Security and defense policy for legality, entrepreneurship and equity” is a 180-degree turn of the peace policies of his predecessor, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Juan Manuel Santos, and was presented together with the military leadership and US ambassador Kevin Whitaker.

According to the president, the policy is “designed to re-establish the principle of authority and move from military and police control to institutional control of the territories” in the countryside where illegal groups and regional clans are the de-facto authority.

Rural communities have been living in terror because of the mass killing of community leaders and human rights defenders in these areas that are traditionally either neglected or abandoned by the state.

More:
https://colombiareports.com/colombia-makes-peace-talks-with-eln-illegal-demobilization-of-armed-groups-virtually-impossible/

[GatoGordo]

1. GOOD!

The FARC was "demobilized" and for all intents was given everything it wanted, including political power far exceeding their support... only it didn't disarm and it renamed itself the ELN and continues to this day to terrorize the rural poor people of Venezuela and Colombia.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.