The former presidential candidate Iván Cepeda lashed out this Monday against the recent decision of the president-elect of Colombia, Abelardo de la Espriella, to suppress the figure of the high commissioner for peace, whom he has described as "the greatest enemy" that the country has had in terms of reconciliation processes.
"De la Espriella is the greatest enemy of peace," Cepeda headed a brief reaction on his social networks about the announcement of his political adversary, which also includes the suppression of several agencies attached to the Presidency. According to De la Espriella's own calculations, this restructuring would imply the reduction of up to 229 positions and savings of 2.7 million euros.
For Cepeda, the measure means "ending the institutionality of peace" and he has stressed that the elimination of this legal figure of the high commissioner, along with the dismantling of the 2016 peace agreements, makes Abelardo de la Espriella "the greatest enemy" that Colombia has faced in its trajectory towards peace.
"His announcements are the most serious violation that has been undertaken against the right to peace of the Colombian people enshrined in article 22 of our Political Charter," the former presidential aspirant insisted.
End of the commissioner for peace and shift towards security
"The commissioner for peace is ending because there will be no more false peace processes," proclaimed De la Espriella, announcing that during his government, the "security" of Colombian citizens and the integral dismantling of the "perverse system of impunity that reigns at this moment" will be prioritized.
De la Espriella detailed that the commissioner for peace will be replaced by a commissioner for security, who, together with the ministers of Justice and the Interior, will have the mission of ending "all that impunity that takes refuge in the mirage of false peace."
The position of commissioner for peace was formally created in 1994, under the presidency of Ernesto Samper, although preliminary initiatives to open channels of dialogue with the guerrillas had already been promoted since the 1980s. This figure acquired a particularly relevant role during the peace agreements with the FARC in 2016.