President Gustavo Petro announced a new day of *Social Dialogue*, this time in Arauca where he was accompanied by the governor in charge Wilinton Rodríguez Benavidez, military and police leadership, regional commands of the public force and other regional and local authorities of the department.
The president assured that the most revolutionary and democratic thing that the illegal armed groups that operate in the different territories can do is “leave the power of the weapon, to give power to the people; It is the most revolutionary and democratic thing that can be done”.
“Peace begins because the population can resume their fundamental rights; because she becomes the owner of the territory, in its diversity. Who holds power in Arauca? Well, peace will be possible when the power in Arauca belongs to the Araucanian people. That is what this government wants to happen, ”he assured during the Social Dialogue for Security, Peace and Life, which took place this Tuesday in the Araucanian capital.
President Petro also announced that the recent ceasefire that the Government agreed to with the National Liberation Army (ELN) “can change the history of the department of Arauca” and said that this will depend “on historical seriousness and responsibility with the new generations ” that the heads of said group have.
“It is no longer a question of reaching an agreement between an armed group and the State, which is also armed -because peace is not built between armed groups-. The agreement must be between the armed and the unarmed society, ”emphasized President Petro, who declared himself“ concerned ”because he does not perceive in society“ the maturity to assimilate a historical process between antagonistic forces ”.
“You have to talk about this issue because peace talks with the Central General Staff are also about to start,” added the President, while trusting in the knowledge that Colombian society has accumulated around the issue of violence to correct the path and achieve national reconciliation.
Petro summoned the Araucanian people to some “citizen assemblies, which -he said- will allow us to mark a path for Arauca, knowing that we are going towards a new era and with the company of the Government, with the company of its Public Force, with the possibility that those who Here they have killed each other, stop killing each other.”
“This message goes to the Central General Staff: the problem is not to stop shooting at the State. First – and before anything else – they must stop shooting at the population or at each other, because I know why they are shooting at each other and why they are shooting at the population”, he pointed out.
Finally, the Head of State urged the population to recover its agricultural essence and undertake agro-industrial projects, while asking for support from the oil industry that benefits from the resources of this department rich in hydrocarbons.
“The proposal of this Government is agribusiness and agribusiness in the hands of producers, thousands and thousands, of the Colombian Llano, for which the Government, then, has to change the priority of the road or communications infrastructure. The highways of the Llano become important and must not be abandoned”, he pointed out.
And he pointed out: “I put on the table: the Government is willing to buy 200,000 hectares and is willing that, together with agricultural producers, they reach industrialization.
Source: Presidency of the Republic