EL TIEMPO, February 7, 2023
(Translated by Eunice Gibson, CSN Volunteer Translator)
The President said that the issue will be evaluated for the so-called multi-crime organizations.
While taking part in a governors’ summit in Bogotá, President Gustavo Petro announced that the administration is analyzing the possibility that in the processes with the multicrime organizations they would change the concept of a bilateral ceasefire into a cessation of hostilities.
He said that this would include the cessation of multicrime activities like extortion and kidnapping, among others.
“Why do I say the ceasefire is the wrong term? Because ceasefire is a term that comes from war between armies, whether government or irregular, like the Russians and the Ukrainians might do,” he stated.
Then he added, “When we are with organizations whose interest is not the destruction of the other army, but rather their interest is in grabbing the biggest amount of cocaine, how can we apply a ceasefire to that, to drug trafficking activity?”
With respect to a cessation of hostilities, he pointed out that it would benefit the civilian population, because it has to do with ending things like extortion, confinements, displacements, and killings of civilians, as well as ceasing drug trafficking activity.