The lead negotiator of Colombia’s government has confirmed that peace talks with a dissident faction of guerrilla group EMC will continue on Tuesday.
EMC founder “Ivan Mordisco” and the majority of his division commanders will not be taking part in the talks, negotiator Camilo Gonzalez told newspaper El Espectador.
Mordisco and his loyalists abandoned the talks earlier this year after the government suspended a bilateral ceasefire in southwest Colombia.
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The talks in the capital Bogota will involve the EMC’s Jorge Suarez Briceño Bloc and the Magdalena Medio Bloc.
According to government negotiator Camilo Gonzalez, the talks will prioritize agreements that would allow an extension of a ceasefire and an end of attacks in regions controlled by the EMC dissidents.
The current ceasefire, which expires on August 16, also covers regions in southeast and east Colombia where EMC units that oppose the talks are active.
The guerrilla units taking part in the talks have been accused of multiple violations of the ceasefire.
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The government negotiators and the guerrillas will also be working on a formal agenda that would allow the eventual demobilization and disarmament of the EMC dissidents, said Gonzalez.
The government negotiator said earlier that the EMC units that are taking part in the peace talks consist of some 1,500 fighters.
This would be almost half of the entire organization formed by former FARC commanders who opposed a peace deal with President Juan Manuel Santos in 2016.
National and indigenous authorities have accused the group of being responsible for a surge in violence during the peace process that followed the demobilization and disarmament of the FARC.
This violence is mainly due because of the guerrillas’ violent attempts to retake FARC territory that was abandoned by their former comrades.
