Caracas, June 29, 2024 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuela hosted the first round of peace talks between the Colombian government and the armed group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia Segunda Marquetalia.
Between June 24-29, both delegations met in Caracas to start negotiations as part of President Gustavo Petro’s initiative to achieve “total peace” in Colombia.
The two parties issued a statement on Saturday highlighting the “constructive” nature of the talks. In a joint declaration, both sides agreed to a set of “early de-escalation measures,” including economic aid programs. For its part, the Segunda Marquetalia committed to a unilateral ceasefire. The next round of dialogue is set to take place in Cuba in August.
The delegations were received by Venezuelan Foreign Affairs Minister Yván Gil, who pledged the Nicolás Maduro government’s commitment “to facilitate the peace process” and urged both sides to show “firm determination” to achieve positive results.
“Our wishes and hopes are that these discussions may, in a very short period, materialize in a lasting and sustainable agreement for peace”, said Gil during his speech in the welcoming ceremony.
In a communique issued on Monday, Caracas added that the Maduro administration would continue to “work vigorously for the reconciliation of our beloved Colombia and to make Latin America and the Caribbean a territory of peace, union and prosperity.” Representatives of Cuba and Norway participated in the negotiations as guarantor countries alongside Venezuela.
For his part, the Colombian government’s lead negotiator, Arnaldo Novoa, reaffirmed Petro’s pledge to end Colombia’s decades-long internal conflict through peaceful means. During his speech, he recalled that Bogotá has “an ethical and moral duty to protect victims, communities and people in areas of the country that have long been forgotten.”
The Segunda Marquetalia delegation was represented by Walter Mendoza and Iván Márquez (both noms de guerre), chief of negotiations and chief commander for the armed group, respectively. The talks were also accompanied by Colombia’s High Commissioner for Peace, Otty Patiño.
In his speech, Mendoza said that the armed group was invested in the peace process. “We want to participate in politics without resorting to the use of weapons. The condition for that will be for the government to fulfill its side of the accords.”
The Second Marquetalia is a small guerrilla organization, with an estimated 2,000 fighters. It was publicly announced in August 2019 by Márquez, a former commander of the extinct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People’s Army (FARC-EP).
Márquez was a negotiator and signatory of the 2016 peace accords that saw the FARC-EP abandon the armed struggle and become a political organization. However, Márquez later accused the former Iván Duque administration of failing to implement the deal after the killing of several ex-guerrilla members as well as social activists.
In 2021, rebel commander for Segunda Marquetalia and former FARC-EP leader and peace negotiator Jesús Santrich (his nom de guerre), was killed in the Perijá region, located in the Venezuelan-Colombian border. The circumstances around his death remain unclear but the Segunda Marquetalia has pointed the finger at Colombian Army commandos allegedly following orders by the Duque government.
InSight Crime, a portal focused on issues related to organized crime in Latin America, has reported that the Segunda Marquetalia has been weakened in the past three years after several confrontations against Colombian irregular armed groups have reduced its strength. Therefore, the rebel organization might be inclined to sign a peace agreement in the near future.
President Petro, a former member of the dissolved M-19 guerrilla group, has stated that he seeks “total peace” in Colombia and wants to negotiate with all remaining armed groups. Since December 2022, the Colombian government and the National Liberation Army (ELN) have been engaged in peace talks, with several rounds of talks held in Caracas.