From Roberto Payán in Nariño, President Gustavo Petro addressed two recent armed group attacks in Colombia, defending his Total Peace project. He stated that peace never fails, but war must, and highlighted progress in illicit crop substitution.
President Gustavo Petro spoke from the municipality of Roberto Payán in Nariño about two violent incidents that occurred in recent days. The first was an attack by the self-proclaimed FARC Dissidents against the population of Buenos Aires in Cauca. The second involved the ELN, which attacked a military base in Aguachica, Cesar, resulting in the deaths of seven soldiers.
Petro described these events as “death among Colombians. No foreigner dies there, as far as I know. Colombians on both sides, out of greed.” In response to criticisms of the Total Peace project due to these incidents, the leader stated: “They say that in those two events peace failed. Peace never fails; what must fail is war.” He questioned: “How to make peace when groups kill each other out of greed?”.
In the same Nariño department, Petro noted that the Los Comuneros del Sur group, which split from the ELN, has decided to lay down arms. “If it lays down arms, if it helps substitute crops, if it abandons violence, it is positive for Colombian society,” he said. He added that if its members enter production cooperatives or universities, “that is more positive for the community. May no young person ever kill another young person.”.
The president also reported progress on illicit crop eradication: “there are already 26,000 hectares in the substitution process, with thousands of families enrolled.” He emphasized that these territories “cannot be transformed against the people” and that “the simple photo of a peasant uprooting the coca plant root is a historic change.”
