Changes. The ex-guerrilla Vera Grabe will be the new chief negotiator of the government of Colombia in peace talks with National Liberation Army (ELN)in the midst of the crisis due to recent kidnapping of the footballer’s father Luis Diazas reported by the Colombian Executive Branch this Monday.
Grabe, who in the eighties militated next to the president Gustavo Petroin the guerrilla M-19will be the one who “will assume the new position in replacement of Otty Patinowho assumed (…) as High Commissioner for Peace”as specified by the Petro government in a bulletin.
The new chief negotiator would have already participated in the peace talks “with the government of “Virgil Barco”which led to the demobilization of the M-19 in 1990. “Then it was congressman by the party that emerged from these agreements,” the Executive recalled.
Now he will take the lead in the fifth round of a peace process, which fulfilled its First anniversary in November, mired in severe tension following the kidnapping of the father of Liverpool player Luis Díaz last month.
Changes in the negotiation team: the latest background
Before starting the new cycle of dialogues in Mexico, former chief negotiator Patiño asked the ELN “desist from the practice of kidnapping”. The rebels, who, according to the government, currently have about 30 persons held, they would be displayed “reluctant to make this concession” and argue that “it is part of their Sources of funding”.
Petro, the first leftist leader to come to power in the history of Colombia, seeks deactivate the conflict armed for six decades through dialogue with rebel groups and armed organizations of drug trafficking.
The Ministry of Defense numbers discourage progress towards peace
Despite Petro’s policy, the Ministry of Defence of the country registered a increase in the kidnappings during the first year of government of Petro, who took over August 2022. The opposition maintains that the “Total Peace” policy only did “limit the action of police and military, deteriorating public order,” according to some opposition leaders.
The conversations with the ELN also took place in Venezuela and Cubawhich act as guarantors together with the governments of Mexico, Brazil, Chile and Norway. These countries were added as companions Germany, Spain, Sweden and Switzerlandin addition to a representative of the secretary general of United Nations.
Source: Ambito
