Colombia’s largest rebel group, the FARC, will surrender some 20,000 weapons to the United Nations in the six months after signing a deal to end 52 years of armed conflict with the state, the government’s main military negotiator said Tuesday.
According to General Javier Florez, who has been negotiating the demobilization and disarmament process on behalf of the government, said additionally that some 16,000 guerrillas and militia members will demobilize.
Florez has been leading the government commission that has been negotiating and planning the FARC’s demobilization and disarmament since late 2014.
In spite of having already agreed to peace and being only only days away from dissolving themselves, the FARC leadership has yet to surrender exact information about their arsenal and members.
Consequently, Florez and his team rely on military intelligence obtained over the years to estimate how many guerrillas will demobilize and how many arms will be surrendered.
“With this data, plus the information from demobilized [FARC guerrillas], we believe that between rifles and handguns, there are 20,000 weapons” that should be surrendered in the 180 days after the September 26 peace agreement, the general told newspaper El Espectador.
The FARC will surrender a detailed list of members at the beginning of its demobilization process as only people on this list will be allowed to enter a government reintegration program.
