The president of Colombia, Abelardo de la Espriella, announced this Friday the definitive closure of the dialogue tables and the spaces for socio-legal interlocution that were still active within the 'total peace' policy implemented by the previous Executive of Gustavo Petro.
The head of State detailed that his Government has approved several resolutions with which these processes will be concluded, setting aside the negotiating path to impose a strategy based on the submission of armed and criminal organizations to ordinary Justice.
"With these decisions I am finally ending the dialogue tables and spaces for socio-legal conversation within the framework of the so-called total peace of the Petro Government," De la Espriella stated in a statement disseminated through his social networks.
Among the announced measures is the closure of the conversation table with the Southern Communers Front, a faction split from the National Liberation Army (ELN), as well as the withdrawal of official recognition of the negotiators who had been appointed by Petro's Administration.
The Executive has also resolved to close the socio-legal conversation space with armed and criminal organizations in Medellín and the Aburrá Valley, known as the "Tarimazo," also withdrawing in this case the accreditation of Isabel Zuleta López as a representative in those contacts.
The Colombian president emphasized that this shift implies abandoning conversations with those groups to apply only mechanisms of submission to Justice, questioning the use of "such a bombastic name for such a big farce," referring to the label of "total peace" used during Petro's mandate.
From now on, De la Espriella explained, the approved resolutions will be sent to the Ministry of Justice and the Attorney General's Office, in order to reactivate the pending judicial procedures against the members of the affected organizations.
"These decisions will be communicated to the Ministry of Justice and the Attorney General's Office so that the respective arrest warrants are reactivated against all these criminals. Of course, the extraditions that we will accelerate and other legal situations that may arise," the president specified.
The president also insisted that his Government rules out maintaining any type of space for dialogue with structures that it considers criminal. "The State does not negotiate its sovereignty nor kneels before criminals," he summarized in another message disseminated on social media.
This change of course adds to the decisions already made at the end of August against other armed groups that had participated in the dialogue processes of the previous Administration, including the General Staff of the Blocks and Front (EMBF), the National Coordinator Bolivarian Army (CNEB), and the Self-Defense Conquerors of the Sierra Nevada (ACSN).
The shift represents a deep break with the strategy promoted by Petro since 2022, when his Government opened parallel contacts with insurgent organizations and structures classified as criminal with the aim of reaching peace agreements, disarmament, or submission to Justice.
The processes initiated during the past legislature had gone through various crises, suspensions, and breaks, especially at the table with the ELN and with different sectors of the dissidents of the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), in addition to internal tensions within some of the organizations involved.
De la Espriella, who assumed the Presidency on August 7 and who had already during the campaign anticipated his intention to modify the peace and security approach of his predecessor, is now betting on making judicial orders effective and reinforcing the criminal prosecution of the members of these groups.
"The concessions to criminals are over. The legitimate authority will never again capitulate," concluded the Colombian president in his statement.