Following the allegedly arbitrary arrest of two demobilized guerrillas, FARC leader Rodrigo Londoño said Sunday he is considering a suspension of the rebel group’s disarmament while calling on “international oversight.”
According to the FARC leader also known as “Timochenko,” one FARC member was arrested in the southern Guaviare department while a second one was arrested in the capital Bogota.
The FARC leader said on Twitter that, due to the latest irregularities, “I am considering to order postponing the disarmament” of the demobilizing guerrillas.
Ante captura de Yimmi Ríos, quien está tareas relacionadas con la implementación estoy considerando ordenar el aplazamiento dejación armas
— Rodrigo Londoño (@TimoFARC) June 4, 2017
Londoño later tweeted that “considering the government’s reiterated non-compliance with the peace agreement, the FARC request international oversight.
Ante el reiterado incumplimiento del Gobierno al Acuerdo de Paz, las @FARC_EPueblo pedimos veeduría internacional. #AlertaPaz
— Rodrigo Londoño (@TimoFARC) June 5, 2017
What kind of international oversight Londoño is seeking is unclear as the peace process is already observed by the United Nations and accompanied by multiple guarantor countries.
The European Union’s envoy recently reprimanded the administration of President Juan Manuel Santos for failing to protect community leaders and FARC members, warning the EU is “very aware of the history of the problem” of community leaders being killed by death squads.
EU envoy calls for Colombia’s social leaders to have ‘maximum protection’
The killing of social leaders have been among a series of government failures to effectively implement the peace agreement that seeks to end more than 52 years of war.
The security forces have failed to effectively assume territorial control over abandoned FARC territory, which according to the United Nations has led to increased levels of political violence in some of these areas.
Increase in political assassinations in Colombia ‘very alarming’: UN
The government has additionally failed to timely construct the demobilization camps in which the FARC is supposed to disarm and has failed to timely deliver the storage containers for the weapons.
Meanwhile, Congress failed to ratify peace deal legislation during the 180-day transitional period in which it could “fast track” bills as lawmakers simply failed to show up at votes.
The state’s apparent inability to implement a peace process had already forced the FARC to call a strike, after which Santos took to using his temporary mandate to decree legislation in order to prevent the process from collapsing.
