Can Colombia’s talks with the Comuneros del Sur help achieve ‘total peace’?

For Gómez-Suárez, if Colombia’s struggle is regional, past the solution should beryllium too.

He draws a opposition betwixt his attack to the Comuneros and the mode the Colombian authorities antecedently negotiated bid with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), erstwhile the largest rebel radical successful the country.

In 2016, nether then-President Juan Manuel Santos, Colombia signed a historical bid woody with the FARC that promised agrarian reforms and improvement successful speech for the nationwide demobilisation of the group’s fighters.

The negotiations that led up to the deal, however, were fraught — and immoderate parts of the FARC splintered disconnected into dissident groups alternatively than hold to the terms.

Gómez-Suárez argued his region-specific attack could beryllium much efficient.

“With erstwhile agreements, namely that with the FARC guerrillas, determination was this thought that thing is acceptable until everything is agreed, which implied that the parties would lone statesman implementation aft a last papers was signed,” Gómez-Suárez said.

“Our lawsuit is awesome due to the fact that sometimes we person adjacent implemented earlier agreements are formally reached.”

Mama Dina, an Indigenous spiritual leader, leads a ceremonial arsenic negotiators from the authorities and the Comuneros del Sur conscionable [Carlos Saavedra/Al Jazeera]

He pointed retired that the Comuneros projected a unilateral ceasefire adjacent earlier their archetypal gathering with the government’s delegates, arsenic a motion of bully faith.

Since then, the parties person signed 2 agreements and program to statesman the Comuneros’ modulation to civilian beingness earlier the adjacent statesmanlike elections successful 2026.

The first agreement comprises 4 points, including a definitive bilateral ceasefire, the gradual demolition of the group’s weapons and a collaborative programme to region onshore mines passim Nariño.

The second establishes information guarantees for the Red Cross, a humanitarian nonprofit, to run successful the Comuneros’ territory.

In addition, the woody calls for the instauration of a squad composed of Comuneros members who volition beryllium trained and tasked with searching for radical who person gone missing during the conflict.

In return, the authorities has pledged backing for constructing roads, aqueducts, schools and universities successful the territory, to assistance code poorness and infrastructure shortcomings successful Nariño.