CARACAS.- Delegates from the government of Colombia and the Second Marquetalia, one of the dissidents of the guerrilla of the FARC, They set up a peace dialogue table in Caracas this Monday, the third promoted by the left-wing government of Gustavo Petro.
Although these negotiations with the group in command of former number two of the extinct guerrillas, aka Iván Márquez, generates resistance to being detractors of the peace agreement with that guerrillas in 2016.
“They had their opportunity. I believe that the path left for them is that of submission,” said Senator Humberto de la Calle, chief negotiator for the government of Nobel Peace Prize winner Juan Manuel Santos in the 2016 agreement.
Petro, who also negotiates with the National Liberation Army (ELN), began talks last October with the Central General Staff (EMC), truncated by internal divisions within that bloc of dissidents.
There are no further details of the agenda in Caracas with the second Marquetalia, beyond a founding document signed on June 5 in the Venezuelan capital focused on “promoting democratic changes and reforms for peace in which populations and territories are the priority, strengthening social mobilization,” according to the government.
The document speaks of the establishment of negotiating commissions to achieve “the decalmation of the conflict, the construction of peace territories”, as well as the attention of victims.
“It is not identified that Alias Iván Márquez or the second Marquetalia are looking for a track towards the political,” Francisco Javier Daza, a researcher at the Paz y Reconciliation Foundation (pairs), told AFP. “It seeks a decalmation of violence in the territories where they operate: the idea of getting to power, of state power, does not appear on the agenda of what is going to be negotiated.”
Before starting the dialogues, the Commander of the Military Forces of Colombia, General Helder Giraldo, said that “there are approaches” to reach a bilateral ceasefire.
“Old guard”
The Caracas document has the signing of Iván Márquez, who was the second most important man of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) when that guerrillas signed peace to become a political party.
Luciano Marín, his real name, was the negotiating chief for the rebels and remained a few years within the process after the firm, but deserted and in 2019 he reappeared in a video announcing a new armed rebellion.
In 2023, local media speculated about his death in Venezuela after suffering an attack. Later, Petro’s government assured that he was in that country recovering from his injuries.
On May 11, Márquez reappeared in a video expressing his support for Petro, with whom he agreed in February to enter into negotiations.
Márquez is “of the few old guard heads that remain” with “strong ideological bases,” Daza added. And that “has a weight” and “may contribute to a negotiation to be much faster, much more effective” than the government has open with the ELN and the EMC.
The Second Marquetalia has about 1,660 combatants, according to military intelligence calculations. Analysts consider that it is a weak guerrilla compared to the EMC led by alias Iván Mordisco, a leader who did not sign peace in 2016, and with the National Liberation Army.
Petro talks with the EMC since October last year, before the group was divided into two in April. Half of the guerrillas in order to bite, while the other 50% are still in dialogue.
Source: With information from AFP
