By Carol Salazar, INFOBAE, April 5, 2025
(Translated by Eunice Gibson, CSN Volunteer Translator)
The armed group, which was part of the National Liberation Army (ELN), turned over hundreds of weapons and explosives to in order to consolidate its commitment to making peace in Colombia and showing immediate compliance with what has been agreed up to now at the negotiating table.
On April 5, 2025, President Gustavo Petro signed two peace agreements with the armed group “Comuneros del Sur” (Commoners of the South) that was once part of the National Liberation Army (ELN). The criminal organization then turned over its armaments, thus carrying out what they have agreed to do so far in negotiations with the national government.
At the meeting titled “Reaching Agreement and Making Progress Toward Peace in the Nariño Territory”, conducted in Pasto (Nariño Department), the parties signed Agreement No. 6, focused on constructing truth, memory, and the dignifying of victims, and Agreement No. 7, focused on substitution of crops planted for illegal use. In addition, the Head of State ordered the destruction of the weapons and explosives that had been turned over by the armed group.
“I am announcing the destruction of the weapons, and as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of Colombia, and, in accordance with my constitutional duty to guarantee peace in the entire country, I order Captain Victor Paz to proceed with the destruction of the armaments from the Comuneros del Sur, part of the National Liberation Army,” he stated.
In the meeting with the people of Nariño, members of the guerrilla delegation spoke. Royer Garzón, for example, stated that the signers of the agreements had no desire to go back to carrying weapons or to continue the resurgence of the armed conflict in Colombia. “Mr. President, we refuse to go back to making war,” he said.
In the same manner, the members of the Front reaffirmed their desire for peace, and affirmed that they have confidence in the President’s administration to achieve peace in the nation. “We want to build peace in the countryside. We believe that in this Government of Change, it really will be possible to end the conflict between the Colombian government and the Comuneros del Sur. Mr. President, we reaffirm our commitment and our sincere desire for the construction of peace in the countryside and the transformations that the people of Nariño deserve,” he explained.
President Petro, through his X account (formerly Twitter), reported the destruction of a ton of the guerrillas’ weapons and explosives, and characterized the events as the first “big success” of his Total Peace policy. “Welcome the Comuneros del Sur Front of the ELN to Peace in Nariño,” he said.
(X post omitted)
The Ombudsman, for his part, issued a statement celebrating the delivery and destruction of the armaments that had belonged to the illegal group as part of the peace negotiations that will benefit ten municipalities in Nariño. “Every landmine, every mortar, every grenade that’s destroyed represents lives saved,” he said.
In the same way, he praised the signing of the agreements establishing the substitution of crops planted for illegal uses and the implementation of a non-judicial system focused on the contribution to truth. As part of that, he urged that signers of the peace agreements be reintegrated into civilian life, and that boys and girls and teenagers be disengaged from the armed conflict, and that humanitarian de-mining and the search for people believed to have been disappeared will continue.
(Printed statement omitted)
“The communities must be at the center of all of the peace-building. To accomplish that, it’s fundamental to strengthen the pedagogy and the community’s participation in this new stage of the process (. . .) It’s indispensable to guarantee the rights of the victims with justice, with reparation, and no repetition through legal mechanisms that are solid and sustainable,” added the Ombudsman in his communication.
Another source, former Interior Minister Juan Fernando Cristo, endorsed the delivery of weapons by the armed group and asked that all work be continued on the implementation of the Nariño Pact and on its accompaniment by the communities that live in the territories covered by the Development with a Territorial Focus Program (PDET).
(Internet post omitted)