[News] UN Secretary questions "enemies of peace" on visit to Antioquia

[Akrapovic]

António Guterres (center) and President Iván Duque shared with social leaders and former combatants in Urabá. PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE PRESIDENCY.

 

 

The commemoration of the five years of the signing took place in Antioquia's Urabá, a region that is home to eight of the 170 municipalities with Pdet (Development Programs with a Territorial Approach).

Investments and resource commitments for 23,000 million pesos have been made in this area. In total, Peace projects in Antioquia have represented investments of 1.5 billion during the current administration.

The Defense Minister, Diego Molano, pointed out that armed groups continue to exist outside the law after the disarmament of the Farc. He stressed that before there were 25,000 men in arms and that now that figure stands at approximately 12,000.

"We want legal peace to be a reality in the Colombian territories," said the minister, and emphasized that within the Public Force there were victims of war crimes.

From the Interior Ministry, Minister Daniel Palacios highlighted that there will be a budget of 400 million dollars for 2022, dedicated to Peace matters, and said that the number of men dedicated to the protection of former FARC combatants rose to 1,706.

And is that one of the issues that has undermined the implementation of peace in Colombia is the security of former combatants: around 300 people who decided to surrender their weapons to start a new life were killed in the process.

"Just as there is a need to protect, it is necessary to dismantle the groups responsible for the murders," said Palacios, adding that the clarification of homicides of social leaders is above 65%, while that of the homicides of exFarc is around 55 %. Palacios says that 27 of the 1,000 municipalities in Colombia concentrate 67% of the attacks to those who surrendered their weapons.

The High Commissioner for Peace, Juan Camilo Restrepo, highlighted that 184 municipalities have been declared free of suspicion of antipersonnel mines. His office prepares this declaration for Montebello, Antioquia, and the department of Cundinamarca.

The former president of Uruguay, Pepe Mujica, and the president of Chile, Sebastián Piñera, greeted Colombia in the commemoration of the five years of the signing. Within the framework of this date, it was also known that the United States Department of State plans to remove the extinct FARC guerrilla from the list of international terrorist groups.

“It is clear that the Farc, in the case of the Peace Agreement, became a political party and, of course, they cannot be a terrorist organization. What is clear is that there are some FARC dissidents that continue to commit crimes as a terrorist group and we will continue to act on them to dismantle them, ”Molano commented.

 

LINK: https://www.elcolombiano.com/antioquia/secretario-de-la-onu-estuvo-de-visita-en-uraba-antioqueno-GB16069087